Authorities in Azerbaijan have detained 10 men on suspicion of taking part in militant activities alongside armed groups in Syria.
Azerbaijan's Ministry for National Security said on January 7 that the suspects are accused of carrying out illegal military activities, illegally crossing borders, creating illegal armed groups, and supplying militants with ammunition, explosives, and weapons.
The ministry accused the suspects of received training at terrorist camps in Syria during 2014 and fighting alongside antigovernment forces in Syria.
Authorities in Russia, as well as former Soviet republics in the Caucasus and Central Asia, have said that hundreds of their citizens are fighting in Syria as part of the Islamic State militant group or alongside Al-Qaeda affiliated militants.
A growing number of people from the Caucasus and Central Asia have been arrested and sentenced in recent months upon returning to their home countries.
