Kyrgyzstan recently finished repatriating women and children who were detained in Syria and Iraq for having been connected with men who fought with al-Qaeda and Islamic State (IS). This has been hailed as the end to Central Asia’s struggle with large-scale jihadism, but the Taliban’s seizure of Afghanistan and the ongoing Israel–Hamas war have the potential to generate another wave of militancy.
The returning Kyrgyz nationals are currently undergoing a long and complex rehabilitation and reintegration process, though one that has been broadly successful across the region.
From the article:
On February 20, Kyrgyz authorities conducted the sixth repatriation operation and repatriated 28 women and 71 children who had been stranded in refugee camps in northeastern Syria since the fall of the Islamic State (IS) in 2019 (Kaktus Media, February 20). This operation brought the number of Kyrgyz nationals returned from Syria and Iraq to 511, including 129 women and 382 children, and completed the repatriation program that began in March 2021 (Kaktus Media, March 16, 2021, February 16, 2023, October 22, 2023, August 30, 2023; Fergana, December 8, 2023).
Upon arrival, these women and children will enter the long and complex rehabilitation and reintegration (R&R) process. This ensures that they will adapt to peaceful life in Kyrgyzstan and present no security threat to their home country. Questions pertaining to their prosecution and the provision of psychological, social, and economic support will decide the fate of Kyrgyzstan’s R&R program. In broader terms, Kyrgyzstan’s latest repatriation operation signaled the end of a Central Asian jihadist era, which saw thousands of Central Asians join terrorist groups in the Middle East since the advent of the IS and its caliphate. However, it is too early for the region’s governments to relax, as the terrorist groups in neighboring Afghanistan and the ongoing war in Gaza may provoke another wave of extremism.
Kyrgyzstanis in International Terrorist Groups
According to the Kyrgyz security services, 850 Kyrgyz nationals left for Syria and Iraq between 2013 and 2020 (United Nations Development Program/Kyrgyzstan, June 21, 2022). The evidence suggests that foreign fighters from Kyrgyzstan who took part in hostilities in Syria and Iraq were divided into two contingents based on their loyalty to al-Qaeda or IS. The group that sided with al-Qaeda was based around Aleppo and fought within the ranks of groups linked with al-Qaeda’s Syrian wing, Jabhat al-Nusrah. One of these groups was Katibat Imam al-Bukhari (KIB), established in 2011. Its most notable Kyrgyzstani fighter was Sirojiddin Mukhtarov. Widely known as “Abu Saloh,” he established his own group, Katibat Tawhid wal-Jihad (KTJ), in 2014. He also allegedly orchestrated several high-profile attacks, including the 2016 bombing of China’s Embassy in Bishkek (by a Uyghur born in China) and the 2017 Saint Petersburg metro bombing (conducted by a Kyrgyzstan-born ethnic Uzbek Russian citizen) (24.KG, September 10, 2022).
The second contingent was based around Raqqa, Syria and Mosul, Iraq and fought within IS’s ranks. Kyrgyz nationals appeared in several IS-produced videos. The most notable one came in July 2015, when IS published a nine-minute-long “Address to the People of Kyrgyzstan” on YouTube. A religious man speaking in Kyrgyz urged Kyrgyzstani Muslims “to move to the lands of the Islamic State from the countries of kufr (infidelity)” (Kloop, July 26, 2015). Kyrgyzstan’s security services identified the individual as a Kyrgyz national from Jalalabad Province but did not provide further details.
Around 150 out of the 850 Kyrgyz who joined these contingents were men, nearly all of whom died in battle. This left their wives and children stranded in Syrian refugee camps and Iraqi prisons (United Nations Development Program/Kyrgyzstan, June 21, 2022). The Kyrgyz government ended the repatriation of Kyrgyz nationals from Iraq after allowing 79 children to be returned home in March 2021. This is because Iraqi authorities refuse to release the remaining women, who were sentenced to lengthy prison sentences. Thus, Kyrgyzstan has focused on repatriating its nationals from the al-Hol and Roj refugee camps in northeastern Syria, where women and children are not imprisoned. In total, 432 individuals (around three-quarters of which were children, with almost all of the remaining returnees being women) were repatriated from Syria in five repatriation operations carried out in a roughly one-year span through 2023 (Kaktus Media, February 16, 2023, October 22, 2023, August 30, 2023, February 20, 2024; Fergana, December 8, 2023).
Uncertainty Mixed with Clarity and Confidence
The Kyrgyz authorities’ approach to R&R of children consists of placing them at special centers, where they spend several months under the care of medical doctors and psychologists before returning them to family members. This was the country’s approach in 2021 and 2023, when the repatriated children were placed “in a rehabilitation center to receive appropriate services to help them adapt to life in a peaceful and safe environment” (Kabar, February 16, 2023). International partners, such as the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), and US-funded NGOs, are expected to continue playing a key role together with the receiving families and communities in Kyrgyzstan’s R&R program. …