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Last December, Amir received a message from a local number he did not recognise. It said: “Your son has become a martyr.”

It was news he had been dreading for months, since his son unexpectedly vanished from the family home in Russia’s north Caucasus republic of Dagestan.

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“I don’t even know where he got a passport,” said Amir, who did not give his real name for security reasons. “He called from Turkey to say he would be studying for a while and would not be in touch. That’s the last time we spoke to him.”

In fact, the young man had travelled to Syria to join the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, following in the footsteps of hundreds, if not thousands, of others from this corner of Russia.

The area’s position as a key supplier of foreign fighters to the terrorist group was highlighted last month when three former Soviet citizens, including two Russians, blew themselves up in a co-ordinated suicide attack at Istanbul’s Ataturk airport, killing 45 people.