300 Chinese extremists fighting for ISIL - report

TOKYO, Dec 16 (KUNA) -- About 300 Chinese extremists have joined ISIL to fight in Iraq and Syria, a Chinese state-run newspaper reported, citing sources, including security officers from Iraq's Kurdish region, Syria and Lebanon.
The Chinese extremist militants of the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM), a terrorist organization that is also known as the Turkistan Islamic Party (TIP), which were previously believed to have been independently fighting with other opposition forces in Syria, have added "IS" to the name of their organizations, a signal that they have officially pledged allegiance to the jihadist group and formed a new sub-division under IS, the Global Times reported.
A senior security official from the Kurdish region said that Chinese terrorists from the ETIM or TIP have travelled to Syria via southeastern Turkey to join the ISIL jihadist group, according to the newspaper, which belongs to the People's Daily, China's Communist Party's official newspaper.
In China, the ETIM, listed by the UN Security Council as a terrorist group, claimed responsibility for the Tian'anmen attack in Beijing in October 2013, in which five people were killed and 40 others injured. (end) mk.bs