Special to WorldTribune.com

CAIRO — Tunisia has emerged as a source for women sought by Al
Qaida-aligned rebel fighters in Syria.

Officials said Al Qaida-aligned militias were recruiting Tunisian women
for sex amid the revolt against the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad.

They said the women as young as 13 were lured to Syria for sex with numerous jihadist rebels as part of what they termed a jihad sex war.

“They have sexual relations with 20, 30, 100 [fighters],” Tunisian Interior Minister Lutfi Bin Jedou said.

Officials said Tunisia, from which least 300 women traveled to Syria for jihad sex, has been a major recruiting ground for Al Qaida in Syria.

But they said authorities, which enhanced border control, have stopped thousands of recruits from leaving the North African state.

“Six thousand of our young people have been prevented from going there
[Syria],” Bin Jedou said.

In an address to parliament on Sept. 19, Bin Jedou outlined the role of
Tunisia in the Sunni war against Assad. The interior minister said Al Qaida
clerics issued approval for the recruitment of Muslim women for sex.

“After the sexual liaisons they have there in the name of sexual holy
war, they come home pregnant,” Bin Jedou said. “We are silent, doing nothing
and standing idle.”

The minister did not say how many Tunisian women were recruited for
Syria. He also did not cite figures on pregnancies of the returning women.

  ‘Jihad sex’ in Syria: Al Qaida clerics approved recruitment of Tunisian women, 300 Tunisian women, Lutfi Bin Jedou