Author: Reuters
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: November 13, 2014

* More than 240 police officers take part in one of largest sweeps
* Pakistani man one of 2 arrested for smuggling fighters to Syria

POLICE arrested nine men suspected of supporting militant groups in Syria and raided numerous properties in one of the largest sweeps against alleged Islamists in Germany yet, prosecutors said on Wednesday.

More than 240 police officers took part in the operation in Germany's most populous state of Noah Rhine-Westphalia, targeting a network believed to help radical organisations that induded IS.

A 58 -year -old Pakistani man, Mirza Tamoor B, was arrested on suspicion that he smuggled two fighters from Germany to Syria, while a 31 -year -old German, Kais B O, was detained on suspicion of recruiting three other potential jihadists and helping them to travel to Syria, federal prosecutors said.

The two are also believed to have sent more than 3,000 euros to support IS and other radical groups.
According to prosecutors in Cologne, a further seven German citizens aged between 22and 35, were arrested on suspicion of robbing churches and schools to provide money for Islamists.

The raids targeted dozens of properties in several cities across North Rhine-Westphalia and police were investigating a further 20 suspected members of the Islamist network, they said.

Some of the suspects were also being investigated for procuring fake passports for potential jihadists who wanted to travel to Syria, t he local prosecutors added.

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Canadian-Israeli is Syria Kurd fighters’ ‘first foreign female recruit’

A Canadian-born immigrant to Israel has become the first foreign woman to join Kurds in Syria, a Kurdish source said on Tuesday, as details of the volunteer’s turbulent past surfaced. Gill Rosenberg, 31, is a civil aviation pilot