Former Elite French Soldiers converting to Islam and fighting for Jihad?

via Fort Russ.com

Militant groups have recruited dozens of former French soldiers, a troubling new report revealed less than three months after a terrorist attack by a staff member at police headquarters in Paris shocked the nation.

More than a third of the ex-servicemen are converts to the Wahhabi Islam promoted by Saudi Arabia and groups like Daesh (ISIL or ISIS) and nearly half served in the elite Foreign Legion, parachute, commando or marine units where they acquired expertise in combat and handling weapons and explosives.

The conservative newspaper Le Figaro published excerpts on Wednesday from the forthcoming report by the Center for the Analysis of Terrorism, a Paris-based think tank. The report said the French Army “constitutes a strategic recruitment target for terrorist groups… and former soldiers represent tremendous assets for these groups”.

The report, “Soldiers and Jihad”, profiles 23 ex-servicemen “identified within terrorist organizations [mainly Daesh] or implicated in plotting terrorist attacks”. An earlier parliamentary report noted that about 30 former servicemen have joined terrorist groups since 2012.

Several former Legionnaires have been arrested over terrorist plots in France, and ex-paratroopers or commandos have become leaders of Daesh combat units in Syria or Iraq. Others who stayed in France have been involved in planning attacks against soldiers or military sites.

Story here.