A tough-as-nails Belgian man who rescued his jihadist son from the Islamic State’s grip — then helped other dads do the same — told The Post on Thursday that is he is back in Syria for another rescue effort.
Dimitri Bontinck began his mission to retrieve the militant groups’ foreign jihadists after his 18-year-old son, Jejoen, became radicalized and fled to Syria, where he got caught up in the struggle to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad.
“It is difficult just to watch and do nothing,” the dad told The Post.
The former soldier said his son’s love for a Moroccan girl led him to convert to Islam at age 15. About nine months later, Jejoen joined a radical Muslim organization in Antwerp and his religious fervor grew.
Bontinck let his son move to Cairo last year to study Islam but worried when Jejoen didn’t call on his sister’s birthday, CNN reported.
The dad looked online and was startled to find pictures of Jejoen living in Syria with Antwerp pals.
Intent on bringing his son back, Bontinck traveled to the war-torn country in 2013.
He says he was captured and beaten by members of Jabhat al-Nusra, a branch of al Qaeda, but that they freed him and led him to his son, who was living with militants.
Police charged Jejoen with participating in a terrorist organization when he arrived back in Belgium, but Jejoen said he was there only to deliver medical supplies to the group, according to CNN.
Jejoen, who is among the 5,000 to 6,000 Europeans who went to fight on behalf of the Islamic State, has been living with his dad in Antwerp, watched closely by Belgian authorities.
His trial will begin at the end of September.
Bontinck’s rescue missions in the Middle East didn’t end with his son’s arrival home.
The dad returned to Syria with three other fathers looking for their sons — and got their kids out of extremists’ hands, too.
He’s currently on a “mission” in Syria to reunite another family with their child.
“I risk my own life to try to make a better world,” he told The Post, adding parents from all over the globe have asked for his help.
Bontinck said he was crushed to hear about journalist James Wright Foley’s execution by terrorists and said he was in touch with the man’s mom, Diane, over the last year.
Asked whether he ever volunteered to save Foley from the Islamic State militants, he replied only, “It’s so secret we can’t talk about it.”