The Turkish army announced that of the 913 Islamic State (ISIS) terrorists captured illegally crossing the border with Syria since January 2015, the vast majority have been Chinese Muslims.
A full 324 of the jihadists were from China, the Turkish Hurriyet Daily News reported Friday, apparently indicating the separatist Sunni Muslim Uyghurs in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China, who have conducted numerous attacks there including with guns and explosives.
Just this January, China reported that 300 citizens, most of them likely Uyghurs, had gone to join ISIS in Syria and Iraq via Malasyia.
Coming in second after China was Russia with 99 ISIS jihadists trying to cross in and out of Turkey, while "Palestine" came in third with 83 terrorists. Those numbers include numerous Arab citizens of Israel, including a former IDF soldier according to Arab sources.
The Turkish army claims it has beefed up border security, pointing to a 61% increase in detentions in the second half of 2015.
Out of the total number, 478 of the jihadists were trying to enter Turkey, while 435 were on their way into Syria. Those trying to enter Syria claimed they were trying to find relatives, while those sneaking into Turkey said they were trying to escape ISIS.
Some revealed they were trained to carry out bombing attacks in Turkey.
Many of the jihadists had money, assault vests, cell phones and computers on them, with any ISIS symbols carefully removed so as not to arouse suspicions. Apparently the Elbeyli district of southern Kilis province was the site of infiltration in most of the cases.