Sunday Telegraph: Foreign-backed Fighters Camps in North Syria Include Members of non-Syrian Nationalities

The British Sunday Telegraph newspaper revealed that the camps of foreign-backed militants fighting against the Syrian state in the northern region included people from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Chechnya, with some of them speaking English.

The newspaper reported in an article published on Saturday that the British Foreign Office “is investigating reports that British citizens are among fighters who kidnapped a British photographer and his Dutch colleague in northern Syria.”

It quoted a source close to the incident as saying that British John Cantlie and Dutchman Jeroen Oerlemans were held by fighters for a week “after they accidentally came across their camp while crossing the border from south east Turkey” to report on the events taking place in Syria.

The source told the Sunday Telegraph that the camp members “included people from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Chechnya, with no Syrians present, adding that “round 40 per cent” of them apparently spoke English but it was not clear what nationalities they were.

The source noted that there were “at least six men with British-sounding voices, including one with a heavy south London accent.”