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White smoke belches from the chimney of a lopsided stone house, mingling with thick fog in Georgia's Pankisi Gorge whose bucolic setting hardly fits its reputation as a jihadist hotbed.
Temur Batirashvili, a 70-year-old subsistence farmer, warms his hands over a rusty stove as he tells the story of his son, one of the most feared commanders with the Islamic State group in Syria.
The notorious red-bearded fighter Omar al-Shishani was born Tarkhan Batirashvili in Birkiani, one of six villages in the area populated by Muslim Kists - descendants of ethnic Chechens who migrated to Georgia in the 19th century.
Shishani - whose nom-de-guerre means "the Chechen" in Arabic - is among dozens of Kists fighting in Syria and Iraq for Islamic State.
The 27-year-old previously served in pro-Western Georgia's US-trained army, fighting against Russian troops during the Russia-Georgia war in 2008.
He was promoted to sergeant before being diagnosed with tuberculosis in 2010 and dismissed.
"When Tarkhan recovered, he was keen to re-join the army," his father said. "They promised him a job in the military but never kept the promise."
A few months later he was arrested and jailed for three years for illegal weapons possession.
When he left jail, shortly before the end of his sentence, he told his father he felt rejected by his country.
"One day he told me: 'Dad, this country doesn't need me.' That was the last time I saw him. He went away and never returned," his father said.
"The time he spent in prison changed him. He converted to Islam. Before that, he was not a religious man."
"He called me only twice from Syria," he added. "He asked me whether I pray. 'Of course I pray,' I told him. 'I pray to Saint George.' He hung up."
A former Georgian security official said Shishani - who was arrested for selling weapons to Chechen separatist fighters - "only cared about money, just as many other purported fanatics who claim to be fighting a holy war".
Shishani, as well as other Kists fighting in Syria and Iraq, have earned the area of northeastern Georgia a reputation for forging Islamic militants.
"Up to 70 people from Pankisi are fighting alongside Islamic State jihadists," Shota Utiashvili, a former senior official in Georgia's Interior Ministry, said.
But he dismissed multiple Western media reports that Pankisi - just a day's drive from Syria - had become a jihadist hotbed.
"There are no radical Islamists in Pankisi," he said. "There might be some Kist kids who are proud of their world-famous Tarkhan, but if he were a football star they would all be dreaming of becoming footballers."
But Pankisi does have a history of militancy.
During the two Russian-Chechen wars, between 1994 and 2000, and for a few years more, separatist fighters from neighbouring Chechnya found a safe haven in Pankisi and even used it as a springboard for attacks on Russian forces.
In 2004, the United States helped Georgia's pro-Western former president Mikheil Saakashvili clear the Chechen fighters out.
But the years of lawlessness had a lasting impact, with some among the 10,000 refugees from the Chechnya wars introducing radical forms of Islam.
"Poverty and unemployment are what drives young Kists out of Pankisi. They look for jobs in Turkey and some of them end up in that bloody war in Syria," said Khaso Khangoshvili.


Georgian gorge where fanatics are forged

White smoke belches from the chimney of a lopsided stone house, mingling with thick fog in Georgia's Pankisi Gorge whose bucolic setting hardly fits its reputation as a jihadist hotbed. Photo: AFP

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Pankisi has reputation for producing Islamists like infamous red-bearded Omar al-Shishani


White smoke belches from the chimney of a lopsided stone house, mingling with thick fog in Georgia's Pankisi Gorge whose bucolic setting hardly fits its reputation as a jihadist hotbed.


Georgian gorge where fanatics are forged

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Pankisi has reputation for producing Islamists like infamous red-bearded Omar al-Shishani

Pankisi has reputation for producing Islamists like infamous red-bearded Omar al-Shishani