Lebanon busts ISIS teen recruiting network

Lebanese forces recently dismantled an "Islamic State of Iraq and Syria" (ISIS) network that had been attempting to recruit teenage boys to form sleeper cells.

In a July 5th statement, the General Directorate of General Security announced it had arrested four Syrian nationals, known only by their initials, B.M.S., K.M.S., M.A.Z and Y.A.Z, who confessed to belonging to ISIS.

According to the statement, B.M.S. had sent his wife to Syria to join her parents, who are ISIS elements, and had pledged his allegiance to ISIS in front of her brother Mohammed, an ISIS operative in the Syrian city of al-Raqa.

Mohammed directed B.M.S. to contact Abu Omar al-Shami, the ISIS "emigration official" in al-Raqa, which he did, with help from his brother, Khalid.

B.M.S then tried, on several occasions but without success, to cross into Syria, the statement said.

After this, he and the three other detainees decided to form an ISIS network in Lebanon to recruit Syrian and Lebanese teens, with the goal of forming large ISIS cells that would carry out attacks in Lebanon on the group's orders.

The network was able to recruit a number of teenage boys under the guise of forming a football team, the statement said, where athletic activities were interspersed with lessons promoting the extremist ideology of ISIS.

ISIS cells in Lebanon

"ISIS needs new fighters after the successive losses the group has suffered," said security strategy specialist Brig. Gen. Naji Malaeb, who is retired from the Lebanese military.

"We have seen videos disseminated by the ISIS-affiliated Amaq [news] agency showing how juveniles are trained," he told Al-Mashareq, noting that the group is psychologically preparing the teenagers it recruits to carry out violent acts.

ISIS networks recruiting teenagers seek to circumvent the security measures used against the group's elements, said strategy analyst Brig. Gen. Richard Dagher, a retired Lebanese military officer.

Under pressure from the Lebanese forces, "it is no surprise that the group would resort to a variety of alternative options, including the recruitment of youngsters, in order to implement its terrorist agenda", Dagher said.

"[Much] hope is riding on the efforts of the Lebanese security forces and their ability to pre-empt all of ISIS’s plans," he added.