News / Russia

Russia's Lavrov says Daesh militants trained in Georgia

Tuesday, 26 January 2016 5:47 PM [ Last Update: Tuesday, 26 January 2016 5:48 PM ]

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov (R back) holds his annual press conference in Moscow, on January 26, 2016. (AFP photo)

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov says Moscow has information that Daesh Takfiri militants are being trained in a valley region in Georgia near the Russian border.

Speaking at an annual press conference in the Russian capital Moscow on Tuesday, Lavrov said that the Daesh militant group is attempting to create terrorist cells in certain Central Asian countries as well as in Georgia's Pankisi Gorge.

The top Russian diplomat added that some detained terrorists have confessed to receiving training in the troubled region and having links with the terrorist group.

Parts of Georgia's porous border with Russia lie in remote areas of the Caucasus mountains and there have been reports in the past about militants from Chechnya and other Russia's turbulent North Caucasus being trained there.

Moscow in the past has said that Georgia's Pankisi Gorge on the border with Chechnya serves as a hideout for militants. Georgia, which has a turbulent and problematic relationship with Russia, has denied the allegations.

Russia has been fighting militants since the mid-1990s in its North Caucasus region, where the republics of Chechnya, Dagestan, and Ingushetia have been the scene of sporadic attacks and militant clashes.

The file photo shows Russian Special Forces officers in Dagestan.

Elsewhere in his remarks, the Russian foreign minister also pointed out that Moscow’s military operations in Syria have reduced terrorist activities there.

Authorities in Russia say hundreds of Chechens have left for Syria to join Daesh Takfiris since March 2011.

The Russian official also voiced concern about the threat the foreign terrorists in the Middle Eastern states pose to their home country upon possible their return.

Moscow began its aerial campaign against Daesh in Syria on September 30 upon a request from the Damascus government.

The US National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) has said foreign militants from over 90 countries, including at least 3,400 people from Western countries and more than 150 Americans, have traveled to Syria to join the terrorist groups there.

Some Western countries and their regional allies, such as Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, have been giving financial, logistical and military support to the militant groups fighting to oust the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad since 2011.

Press TV’s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses:

www.presstv.co.uk