Isis: Bosnian police arrest Islamic State's alleged recruiters

Bosnian authorities have arrested six men for alleged links with the Islamic State (Isis) including two at Sarajevo airport who were getting ready to flee the country and wage jihad in Syria.

Boris Grubesic, spokesman for the state prosecution office, told AP that the suspects were members of radical religious groups and were accused of recruiting and financing fighters.

The police operation, conducted in coordination with the Bosnia's intelligence services, is the latest in a country where radical groups are a fringe but vocal minority in the Muslim community.

Last September, Bosnian police detained 16 people on allegations of funding terrorist activities in the Middle East. Among the arrested was Bilal Bosnic, the leader of the Salafi movement in Bosnia Herzegovina who called young Muslims to join the ranks of Isis.

Bosnic is on trial for recruiting young Muslims to fight in Syria for IS.

Hundreds of Muslims from Albania, Kosovo, Macedonia, Albania and Bosnia are reported to have gone to pursue jihad in Syria and Iraq.

Salafism was imported in Bosnia, a country where Muslims make up 45% of the population, during the 1992-1995 Bosnian War with Saudi financing. Mujahedeen came to help Muslim Bosnians, also known as Bosniaks, from all over the world in their fight against Serbs and Croats.

Many Bosniak fighters reportedly joined the al-Qaeda affiliated al-Nusra front in Syria in the struggle against Assad. In June last year, Bosnia passed a law to ban their citizens fighting in foreign wars. Joining jihad now constitutes a criminal offence in the country carrying a sentence of 10 years.

According to some estimates, about 50 young men travelled to Syria from Bosnia and 32 have already come back.