Turun Sanomat 1.8.2013 04:50
A finnish man fighting alongside Syrian rebels has died. According to Turun Sanomat he fell at the end of June in Aleppo in a fire fight between the rebels and government forces.
His body was left in the middle of the battlefield in a borough that was reclaimed by supporters of Assad.
The man who had converted to Islam as an adult left for Syria last summer with his finnish wife. They joined the FSA in the north side of Aleppo after travelling into Syria through Turkey.
The wife did not participate in the action. The couple had a child just two weeks before he fell.
Finnish Security Intelligence Service neither denies or confirms the news.
- We don't have official information about this death. When people die in these kind of fights, the word doesn't come through an authority channel. When conflicts drag on these news don't come as a surprise, inspector general Tuomas Portaankorva commented.
FSIS says the number of goers has been on the increase this year. More and more women have gone aswell.
- The worrying thing is that entire households are leaving. There have been a few dozen from Finland, Portaankorva tells.
Reasons are varied. Some leave to fight, some for humanitarian purposes entirely. Travellers mainly go through Turkey.
- It's a very inexpensive and handy route to the area. Once inside Syria it's easy to enlist yourself into your chosen team.
TS Heikki Kauhanen
