Is Kosovo Becoming A Hotbed Of Islamic Extremism?

Image: Kacanik lies in southern Kosovo's Sharr Mountains, a pathway between central Europe and the southern Balkans since at least the Bronze Age.

Frud Bezhan, Radio Free Europe: Inside Kosovo's Islamist Cauldron

A 19-year-old former Islamic State recruit talks about life in a hotbed of militant Islam, and how close he came to joining the ranks of killers.

Kacanik, KOSOVO – A plume of smoke hangs over our table in the corner of a dark, shabby café in this rugged town in southern Kosovo. The lanky 19-year-old sitting next to me is chain-smoking through half a pack of L&Ms, his hands trembling as he recalls how he joined one of the world's most brutal militant Islamist groups.

Through his neatly trimmed beard, Adem, who asks me not to use his real name for fear of arrest, says he had never even left Kosovo. But two years ago, he found himself on the perilous and far-off Turkey-Syria border -- a major entry point for foreigners seeking to join the ranks of Islamic State (IS).

He was taken by IS recruiters to a Turkish village, where he waited to be smuggled into a war zone. After a two-week training camp in the Syrian city of Raqqa, the de facto capital of the Syrian and Iraqi territory that the group calls its "caliphate," he would be assigned to a fighting unit.

Hours before the recruiters were to sneak him across the border, however, Adem turned back and made his way home.

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