Kosovo police arrest men suspected of financing Islamic State fighters

A Reuters reporter saw counter-terrorism police surrounding a business park just outside the center of capital Pristina at 6 a.m. (0500 GMT) from where officers were carrying away computers from a car maintenance and rent-a-car garage.

One suspect, identified only as F.R., had funded many young Kosovans to become Islamic State fighters, the statement said.

"The suspect has continuously used his business with the aim of giving financial and logistical support to the people that are involved in recruiting others for terrorism ... and those who have gone to the conflict zones," a police statement said.

"A number of them, including some of his workers in his business, are reported dead in the conflict zones," it said.

In 2014, police closed an unauthorized mosque at the same business park, where authorities said radical Islam was being preached. Some 90 percent of Kosovars are secular Muslims.

After a raid at a house in Prizren, about 80 km (50 miles) from Pristina, on Tuesday, police arrested and later released another person for financing two would-be Islamic State fighters who were arrested in December before they left Kosovo.

Police say about 300 Kosovars have joined Islamic State and more than 50 have been killed. More than 100 people have been arrested or are being investigated for recruiting or participating in the fighting in Syria and Iraq.

Under a new law, which allows prison terms of up to 15 years for taking part in foreign wars, a Kosovo court last week jailed a man for three years for joining Islamic State.

(Editing by Adrian Croft and Louise Ireland)