Another Macedonian Albanian Reported Killed in Syria

Thirty-one-year-old Adnan Rexhepi from Kumanovo, northern Macedonia, died on Saturday while fighting with a rebel group against the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Albanian-language media in Macedonia have reported.

He was reportedly killed in the Syrian province of Sham.

"We have received the news that our brother Adnan died as a martyr in Sham, Allah have mercy on him, we feel proud that we had him," friends were cited writing on Facebook by the Albanian-language INA news agency.

Rexhepi was a former insurgent of the now defunct National Liberation Army, NLA, which fought the Macedonian security forces during the conflict in the country in 2001. The conflict ended that year with the signing of a peace accord.

In 2003, Rexhepi was arrested by Macedonian police and sentenced to four years in prison for placing a bomb in the centre of Kumanovo along with several other acomplices. The explosion caused by the bomb injured three people.

Rexhepi is the sixth Macedonian citizen who has reportedly been killed in Syria. Some unofficial reports say that more than 300 Albanians from Macedonia might have already joined Syrian rebels. However, Macedonian authorities said it was impossible to obtain a complete picture.

Addressing this issue in January, the head of the Islamic Religious Community in Macedonia, IVZ, Sulejman Rexhepi, warned Muslims not to get involved in the sectarian conflict raging in Syria.

Adnan Rexhepi reportedly died on Saturday

“There is terror going on there between brothers and I do not see what is the point now of helping one side against the other,” the cleric said.

Macedonian law forbids citizens from taking part in foreign paramilitary groups. If evidence...