Onlookers gather at the site of a bomb attack in Syria's northeastern city of Qamishli on July 27, 2016.(AFP Photo)

BISHKEK, March 9 (Xinhua) -- Kyrgyzstan's State Committee for National Security detained a citizen who had been recruiting his countrymen to Syria, the Committee's press service reported on Thursday.

During a counterterrorism operation aimed at underground terrorist cells, the Committee detained a resident in the southern Kara-Suu region M.M. The suspect is an active member of the Jamaat Tawhid wa Jihad international radical organization, the report said.

The security committee said the detained suspect had recruited and sent Kyrgyz citizens to Syria for terrorist training and participation in the ongoing civil war there.

According to official data, about 600 Kyrgyz citizens have left for Syria and Iraq.