French soldiers recruited by Jihadist terror groups

ISLAMIST terror organisations have recruited dozens of former French soldiers, a report has revealed.

It comes less than three months after the country was shocked when a staff member carried out a terrorist attack at police headquarters in Paris.

More than a third of the ex-servicemen are converts to Islam and nearly half served in the Foreign Legion, parachute, commando or marine units, where they acquired expertise in the handling of weapons and explosives.

Le Figaro published excerpts yesterday from the report, by the Centre for the Analysis of Terrorism, a Paris think tank. It says the French army “constitutes a strategic recruitment target for terrorist groups … and former soldiers represent tremendous assets for these groups”.

The report profiles 23 ex-servicemen “identified within terrorist organisations [mainly Isil] or implicated in plotting terrorist attacks”. An earlier parliamentary report noted that about 30 former servicemen had joined jihadist groups since 2012.

Several former Legionnaires have been arrested over terrorist plots in France, and ex-paratroopers or commandos have become leaders of Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) combat units in Syria or Iraq. Others who stayed in France have been involved in planning attacks.

Some of the ex-servicemen “became radicalised after they joined the French army, while others started becoming radicalised after they left”, the report said. “However, some were planning to join jihadist groups before being recruited by the French armed forces.”

One such fighter is named as Boris V,

‘Some were planning to join jihadist groups before being recruited by the armed forces’

from Charente, in south-western France, who became an air commando specifically to learn skills that would be useful to a terrorist group. He was killed near Aleppo in Syria in 2016.

Frédéric R, a former legionnaire in his sixties who converted to Islam, was arrested last month and confessed to helping a group of radicalised youths plan attacks.

French military intelligence said efforts to detect and prevent radicalisation were stepped up earlier this year.

“The threat level from Sunni jihadist Islam within the armed forces is now considered low,” it said.