Public broadcaster NDR said on Tuesday that several extremists from Germany were fighting in cities such as Homs and Aleppo, which have seen some of the fiercest battles between rebels and troops loyal to the Assad regime.
NDR’s investigative magazine Panorama said it had no exact figures, but that its information had been confirmed by Germany’s domestic intelligence agency, the Verfassungsschutz.
Set to be aired on Tuesday evening, the show cites security officials saying the participation of German Islamists in the conflict had “taken a new dimension” following the posting of a video on the internet by a German Muslim known as Hayan M.
The video shows him being pushed to the front line in a wheelchair after having had his leg amputated. Speaking in German, the 38-year-old calls on all German Muslims to take up arms.
“Every Muslim, I must tell him, you must join the Jihad! Fly to Syria!” he says in the clip.
Hayan M., who until recently lived in central German city of Kassel with a German wife and children, then shows his German driver’s licence and health insurance card to the camera.
DAPD/The Local/mry
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