Isis paying smugglers up to $2,000 in recruitment drive among child refugees in camps.

Isis paying smugglers up to $2,000 in recruitment drive among child refugees in camps. (Guardian).

Sunday 5 February 2017 00.04 GMT Last modified on Sunday 5 February 2017 00.08 GMT

Islamic State is paying the smugglers’ fees of child refugees in a desperate attempt to attract new recruits, according to a report highlighting the potential vulnerability of unaccompanied minors to radicalisation.

The report, from counter-extremism thinktank Quilliam, also says that an estimated 88,300 unaccompanied children – identified by the European Union’s police agency Europol as having gone missing – were at risk of being radicalised.

Citing failures in the approach of Europe, particularly the UK, towards protecting child refugees travelling alone, the report, published on Monday, warns that jihadi groups, including Isis and Boko Haram, have attempted to recruit within refugee camps using financial incentives, as well as working with the people smugglers.

Quilliam said that Isis had offered up to $2,000 (£1,600) to recruit within camps in Lebanon and Jordan. Last year, Jordanian special forces reportedly found what they described as an Isis sleeper cell inside a refugee camp near Irbid, north Jordan. Additional reports indicated that Isis had tried to recruit refugees by supplying food previously withheld from camp residents.

Researchers identified a number of risk “hotspots” where refugees and young people were particularly vulnerable to recruitment by extremist organisations. One of the most acute of these is the north African coast where Quilliam said Isis fighters have offered £800 to those who join them.

Another so-called hotspot is the south Libyan town of Qatrun, where reports have indicated that Isis, which is believed to have between 4,000 to 6,000 fighters in the region, has waived £450 smuggler fees to allow refugees to travel north if they joined its ranks. Read the full story here.

Paris attack terrorist Mohamed Belkaid was radicalized in Sweden.

Paris attack terrorist Mohamed Belkaid was radicalized in Sweden. (sverigesradio).

A former resident of Sweden who was killed in a police anti-terror raid in Brussels was recruited and radicalized in Stockholm by an extremist network whose leader has eluded Säpo for over a decade, reports SVT's investigative programme, Uppdrag granskning.

Mohamed Belkaid lived in Sweden for almost four years before leaving to join IS in Syria in 2014. The 35-year-old Algerian is said to have had a coordinating role in the terrorist attacks in Paris and was reported to be planning new attacks in Brussels in March when he was shot dead by Belgium police at an apartment shared with several over jihadists.

A week later, the remainder of the terror group killed over 30 people in Brussels with suicide bombs.
Uppdrag granskning can now reveal that Belkaid became radicalized in Sweden by an Islamic extremist who recruits and helps finance the so-called Islamic State. The security and intelligence service Säpo has known about the man since the 1990s.

Sources tell the program that Mohamed Belkaid worked at a shop run by the former radical preacher in central Stockholm. He also lived in the same apartment block, along with other IS recruits.

The shop worked as a meeting place for extremists and according to Uppdrag Granskning, and it is where Belkaid, a petty thief, became radicalized.

The shop has since closed down and the whereabouts of its owner are not known although sources tell the program that he is is still an active IS recruiter in Sweden.

Uppdrag granskning, in cooperation with the German public service broadcaster ARD, gained access to a leaked list first given to Sky News, containing thousands of names of IS fighters. The documents date from 2013 and 2014 and include the names, addresses and other personal details as well as whether the candidate is prepared to carry out a suicide attack.

‘Extremist’ children under 10 referred to UK de-radicalization programs daily

‘Extremist’ children under 10 referred to UK de-radicalization programs daily. (RT).

Efforts to stem Islamic and far-right extremism in the UK have led to children under the age of 10 being referred to government de-radicalization programs on an almost daily basis, new figures show.

A total of 4,611 people, around half of them children and teens, have been flagged up for possible intervention in the past year to stop them falling under the influence of extremist ideologies.

The figures have jumped 75 percent since last year, when local authorities - including schools and councils - were given a statutory duty to stop people being drawn into terrorism, known as the Prevent strategy.

Islamic extremism is involved in 70 percent of those referred, while 15 percent of cases are related to far-right ideas, figures released under the Freedom of Information Act show.

A spokesperson for the Home Office said: “We have a duty to challenge, at every turn, the twisted narrative that has exploited some of our vulnerable young people.' Read the full story here.

Video - Little Islamic state Girl Sings ISIS Song, Beheads Doll - Warning: Disturbing Images

Islamic State's Child Soldiers 'the Caliphate Cubs' : First Come the Sweets, Then the Beheadings.

Islamic State's Child Soldiers 'the Caliphate Cubs' : First Come the Sweets, Then the Beheadings. (Spiegel).

The Islamic State is holding thousands of young boys captive in Syria and Iraq, where it is teaching them the Koran and how to become deadly child soldiers. 

In a tent in a refugee camp in Dohuk, at the base of ochre-colored mountains, Amir and Ahmed, 15 and 16, unroll their mats on the floor to forget the terrible memories. It's a cool autumn evening, and they prop themselves up with cushions and turn on the TV. The two brothers fled from their captivity at the hands of the Islamic State (IS) six months ago. Now all they want to do is watch some cartoons.

The brothers flip through the channels. IS also has its own propaganda station, which viewers can easily receive here, in Kurdish northern Iraq. Ahmed, holding the remote control in his hand, suddenly calls out: "There we are Amir! That's us!" The brothers recognize themselves on the screen: dressed in black outfits, their faces masked, with other child soldiers during combat training in Mosul.


It is now spring, and that evening spent in front of the television is a few months in the past. Ahmed and Amir, sitting close together, talk about it in the same small tent in the camp. Ahmed, the older of the two, speaks in a hoarse voice about their time with IS, while Amir stares at the floor. "They gave us drugs, and we believed everything after that," they say. 

Ahmed and Amir were held hostage by IS for nine months, imprisoned in a military camp in Mosul, the IS stronghold in Iraq. There the terrorist organization used beatings and weapons to train them to become child soldiers, or "lion cubs of the caliphate," as IS puts it. The "lion cubs" blow themselves up to kill supposed infidels. They witness beheadings, to learn how they are done. They donate blood for injured adult fighters. And they turn in traitors.

It is difficult to determine how many child soldiers Islamic State is training. Experts estimate that about 1,500 boys are serving the terrorist group in Iraq and Syria. Some are born to the militants. In fact, more than 31,000 women are currently pregnant in IS-held territory. Other children arrive with their parents from abroad when the parents join the jihadist movement. In many cases, the "lion cubs" are also children of local fighters or orphans who join IS voluntarily. Others, like Ahmed and Amir, are kidnapped. Read the full story here.

Islamic Balkans Failing to Counter ISIS’s Appeal to Women.

Islamic Balkans Failing to Counter ISIS’s Appeal to Women. (Balkan insight)

Belgrade think tank says Balkan states must understand the reality of Islamic State’s appeal to Muslim women - if they want to stem to outflow of women there.

Women from the Western Balkans and elsewhere are as attracted to the Islamic State as much as men, a paper published by the Belgrade Centre for Security Policy think tank, says.

The presence of women in the Islamic State is dangerous—although women currently do not participate in violent jihad, they are responsible for raising the next generation of jihadists, for performing professional functions while the men engage in violent jihad, and for the recruitment of more individuals to populate the caliphate.

Women who migrate tend to feel marginalized in the societies where they live, and also may have psychological problems, which will only be exacerbated by their experiences in the Islamic State.

While violent extremist groups are often thought to be the domain of men, the numbers of wom en migrating to Syria and Iraq from the Western Balkans and around the world are proving otherwise.

As numbers of foreign fighters traveling from the Western Balkans to Islamic State-held territory
continue to increase, there is a corresponding problem of women from the Western Balkans being recruited to join the Islamic State.

Current evidence shows that there are visible numbers of women who have already migrated — in particular, from Bosnia-Herzegovina (36), Kosovo (42), and Albania (13-29). Estimates show that around 10-15% of total Islamic State recruits are women.

There is no single profile of the typical female recruit, however two distinct groups are evident:

1.) young women (as young as 15) who travel to ISIS territory to marry a jihadist and 

2.) women who are already married and travel with their husband. For young women still living with their parents, evidence from the Western Balkans and elsewhere shows that parents had little to no prior indication that their daughters were being radicalized or had the intention of departing for Islamic State-held territory.

The paper notes that “the women who migrate have taken on a variety of roles, and although they are predominantly expected to keep to the domestic sphere, their participation is still critical for developing the Islamic State‘s ‘Caliphate’ into what they believe will be a Muslim utopia”.

They also help expand the Islamic State‘s network by recruiting other women. Women are barred from taking up combat, and while they do not pose a security threat to European countries at present, they could be trained to become suicide bombers or fighters in future, the paper say.
Read the full story here.

The Netherlands to Include minors, so called 'Caliphate cubs' in Terrorist Lists.

The Netherlands to Include minors, so called 'Caliphate cubs' in Terrorist Lists. (VolksKrant).

The Netherlands will include in their terrorist lists children starting from the age of nine, who left areas controlled by Daesh and came back to the Netherlands with their families, Dutch newspaper Volkskrant wrote on Wednesday, referring to the General Intelligence and Security Service of the Netherlands (AIVD).

Children taking part in the conflict in Syria can be a considered a threat from the age of 9 years and will henceforth be added to the terrorism list in the Netherlands, intelligence service AIVD confirmed to the Volkskrant.

In a publication released in January, the AIVD revealed that from the age of 9 years boys in the ISIS caliphate are sent to military training camps. They are trained in firearms and stabbing weapons, practice executions and swear allegiance to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al Baghdadi. Girls of that age start wearing veils in public and are trained in how to assist their future husband in the armed struggle.

The AIVD believes that this is enough to consider these children dangerous, also to the Netherlands if kids travel back with their family. The intelligence service will therefore give each Dutch child known to be in the conflict zone its own file and register them on the terrorism list. That information can also be shared with other services.

So far about 250 adults left from the Netherlands to go to the ISIS conflict zone in Syria. 42 of them were killed and 40 returned. According to the AIVD there are also about 70 Dutch minors in the caliphate. Hmmmm......Someone been reading my blog? How many times in the past have i warned of the possible threat of these 'Caliphate Cubs'?

 Related? 

Europol : "10,000 refugee children are missing".

ISIS, Iraqi Government Forces Have Record of Laws of War Violations. HRW.

ISIS, Iraqi Government Forces Have Record of Laws of War Violations. HRW. (HRW).

Use of Child Soldiers.

ISIS and the PMF use children in their ranks. A man who fled Ramadi in May 2015, when ISIS controlled the city, said ISIS recruited children as young as 7 through the mosque or by force:

“Whoever had four sons had to give two to ISIS,” he said. “Whoever had three or two sons, had to give one.”

In August 2015, Human Rights Watch interviewed two children who managed to flee an ISIS training camp for over 340 children in Tel Afar. They said teachers trained older children in religious studies and boys aged 14 and over in combat. In Syria, ISIS and other groups used children in combat.

ISIS also prevents civilians from fleeing. In Fallujah, ISIS executed people trying to flee in March 2016, a lawyer in Baghdad who had a first-hand account told Human Rights Watch. Several people fleeing the Hawija area, in Kirkuk governorate, said that ISIS has mined fields to prevent people leaving, and executed people caught trying to escape. 

A young man fleeing Atshana village in Kirkuk, in September 2015, said ISIS shot at his group as they made a dash for the Kurdish front lines. Human Rights Watch spoke with several people who said that ISIS is not allowing anyone, including civilians, to leave Mosul at present. 

A civilian from ISIS-controlled Ba’aj, a town 160 kilometers west of Mosul, told Human Rights Watch that he had to pretend his wife was sick to be allowed to leave in May 2015. He said ISIS burned the car of another family because they tried to flee the town, warning them they would be killed if they tried again.

ISIS forces, in August 2014, attacked the city of Sinjar and surrounding areas in Ninewa province inhabited by many from the Yezidi religious minority. ISIS enslaved more than a thousand Yezidi women and girls and executed many Yezidi men.

An Annex on Military Matters of the Islamic State, a manual for its commanders, lists among the necessary attributes of an Islamic State commander, that he “observ[e] the rulings of war in their entirety” without specifying the nature of ISIS’ understanding of those rules. Read the full story here.

At least Forty Swedish Children live among ISIS, some have returned to Sweden

At Least Forty Swedish Children live among ISIS, some have returned to Sweden. (SP).

Around 40 children have been taken by their parents from Sweden to live in Daesh-controlled territory, Sveriges Radio reported.

Dozens of Swedish nationals who have traveled to Iraq and Syria to support the infamous terrorist group Daesh (ISIL/ISIS) have taken their children with them, Sweden's national coordinator against violent extremism told Sveriges Radio on Tuesday.


The national coordinator's committee secretary, Yassin Ekdah, said that an estimated 40 children under the age of ten have been taken to join violent extremist groups, either by their mother or both parents.

"That is a low estimate. I could imagine that there are many, many more," Ekdah said.

The national coordinator also believes that some single women have traveled to Iraq and Syria and consequently had children with Daesh fighters. It is unknown how many such children there are, but they will automatically receive Swedish citizenship.

Ekdah said that some children have now returned to Sweden after living in Daesh-controlled territory for up to two years.

"They see killing as part of everyday life, they experience the fallout from bombs and are taught that killing people for having a different faith is justified. There are also cases where mothers have been  victims of rape when the child is present."

Despite often exhibiting signs of trauma, these children are forced by their parents to keep silent about their experiences and don't receive the help they need.

"It is apparent in their play, it is often morbid and deals with death and beheadings. They have a lot of nightmares, anxiety, fear and above all a lot of aggression." Hmmm.......Once again i warn about the remote possibility of Caliphate cubs to be among the refugees, in my opinion this danger is real and we are not prepared for it!

Related: One Thousand ISIS Caliphate lion Cubs on the loose in Europe?

New ISIS Video Highlights What Child Soldiers Go Through https://t.co/wid9tYXAjD via @YahooParenting

— david mc (@drmrox151) October 15, 2015

43 Jihadists Caught Pretending to be Refugees Fuel Alarm.

43 Jihadists Caught Pretending to be Refugees Fuel Alarm. (voanews).

The U.S.-based Terrorism Research & Analysis Consortium (TRAC) reported this week that 41 Islamic State-linked militants and two from rival Jabhat al-Nusra, al-Qaida's affiliate in Syria, were apprehended while posing as refugees. Some of them used false passports, TRAC said in a security update for commercial clients that it shared with VOA.

Nineteen of the 43 jihadists were caught in Turkey but the rest made it into the European Union before being identified, reported TRAC, a consultancy of academics and analysts.


The documented cases of jihadists trying to sneak into Europe is adding to the alarm of European intelligence services and politicians struggling to cope with hundreds of thousands of newcomers.

Some 36,000 people – including war refugees from the Mideast as well as mainly economic migrants from Africa – entered Europe just in the first three weeks of January, according to the International Rescue Committee, a humanitarian aid organization.

Last week, Europol, the EU's law enforcement agency, warned that IS had set up secret training camps across Europe to prepare fighters to carry out "special forces style" attacks.


In a statement, Europol said: "In selecting what to attack, where, when and how, IS shows its capacity to strike at will, at any time and at almost any chosen target.

The Paris attacks on 13 November 2015 indicate a shift [toward] a clear international dimension of Islamic State to carry out special forces style attacks in the international environment." Hmmm........And the EU better wake up to the threat child soldiers can pose. Read the full story here.

Europol : "10,000 refugee children are missing".

Europol : "10,000 refugee children are missing". (Guardian).

The EU’s criminal intelligence agency warns pan-European gangs are targeting minors for sex work and slavery.

At least 10,000 unaccompanied child refugees have disappeared after arriving in Europe, according to the EU’s criminal intelligence agency. Many are feared to have fallen into the hands of organised trafficking syndicates.

In the first attempt by law enforcement agencies to quantify one of the most worrying aspects of the migrant crisis, Europol’s chief of staff told the Observer that thousands of vulnerable minors had vanished after registering with state authorities.

Brian Donald said 5,000 children had disappeared in Italy alone, while another 1,000 were unaccounted for in Sweden. He warned that a sophisticated pan-European “criminal infrastructure” was now targeting refugees. “It’s not unreasonable to say that we’re looking at 10,000-plus children.

Not all of them will be criminally exploited; some might have been passed on to family members. We just don’t know where they are, what they’re doing or whom they are with.” Hmmm.......And then there's the remote possibility that some are 'Caliphate cubs' who gather at known support addresses. Read the full story here.

Related:

Officials in Trelleborg in southern Sweden have told The Local that around 1,000 unaccompanied refugee children and young adults who have arrived in the town over the last month have since gone missing.

The small coastal town is currently experiencing its biggest influx of refugees to date, with several hundred people turning up every week since the start of September, according to authorities. But out of 1,900 children who have arrived in Trelleborg over the last month without parents or older relatives, at least half are believed to have left the area without alerting officials, despite being given temporary accommodation there.

Swedish asylum staff attacked by rioting refugee minors.

Swedish asylum staff attacked by rioting refugee minors. (Thelocal).

Staff at a home for refugee children in southern Sweden were forced to barricade themselves in a room on Wednesday night, after 19 young men in their care rioted and attacked them with weapons. 

The employees were only freed when a squad of police cars arrived at the centre and arrested the alleged ringleaders behind the riot. 

“There was a violent riot at the accommodation centre for unaccompanied refugee children,” Ingela Crona from the local police in Kalmar told Expressen. “They broke loose, and a total of 19 people banded together and did this.” 

According to Expressen, the young men were carrying makeshift weapons. 

Police last night seized two of the young men. One, a 16-year-old boy suspected of starting the riot, is still being held. The other has been released.  

The local municipality in Emmaboda, near Kalmar, which oversees the home, has moved some of the children to another location to calm down the situation. 

More than 35,000 unaccompanied refugee children came to Sweden in 2015, all but 2,847 of whom are male. Hmmm........I've warned over and over again, we are not prepared for Caliphate cubs among the refugees, i hope to God it doesn't come true.

Related: Around 1,000 unaccompanied refugee children and young adults who have arrived in the town over the last month have since gone missing.

Sweden - Young female Swedish social worker allegedly stabbed to death by a 15-year-old asylum seeker at a shelter for refugee children.

Sweden - Young female Swedish social worker allegedly stabbed to death by a 15-year-old asylum seeker at a shelter for refugee children. (TS).

Police spokesman Thomas Fuxborg said on Monday evening that the teenager had been arrested on suspicion of murder. He added that the motive was not immediately clear, but noted that a knife had been found at the asylum accommodation in west Sweden.

"It is so terrible. She was a person who wanted to do good," Mezher's cousin told Swedish newspaper Expressen. "And then he murdered her when she was doing her job.

"It is the Swedish politicians' fault that she is dead," the cousin added.

Mezher was allegedly stabbed to death on Monday by a 15-year-old migrant at a refugee center in Molndal, a city of about 40,000 people on the southwestern coast near Gothenburg, according to Expressen.

"It was messy, of course, a crime scene with blood," police spokesman Thomas Fuxborg told Swedish news agency TT. He refused to identify Mezher's teenage attacker, his nationality or his motive, but Fuxborg did say that other asylum seekers tried to come to Mezher's aid.

"The perpetrator had been overpowered by other residents" when arrested, Fuxborg said, adding that everyone at the center was "depressed and upset" about the brutal stabbing.

Staffan Alexandersson, a social worker and spokesperson for Living Nordic AB, the company that runs the center for unaccompanied migrant youth ages 14 to 17, described the incident as a "horrible and tragic event."

"We regret what happened," he told TT, "and we're working right now in the crisis team to deal with both staff and children."

The symbolism of Mezher's murder—a Swede from a Middle Eastern family allegedly brutally stabbed by a recently arrived migrant—was not lost on the country's politicians.

Prime Minister Stefan Lofven visited the asylum center just hours after the death, calling it a "terrible crime" and admitting that it tapped into escalating fears.

"I believe that there are quite many people in Sweden who feel a lot of concern that there can be more cases of this kind, when Sweden receives so many children and youth, who come alone [to seek asylum]," he said, according to Radio Sweden.

Lofven also promised more resources for police, saying that security forces were taxed by the recent influx of immigrants.

"The police authority have got . . . a heavier workload because of the refugee situation," he said. "And then you need more resources."

His comments were echoed by National Police Commissioner Dan Eliasson, who on Monday requested 4,100 additional officers to fight terrorism, carry out migrant deportations and patrol asylum centers.

"We are forced to respond to many disturbances in asylum reception centers," he told TT. "This was not the case six months ago and it means that we won't be able to respond as effectively in other areas."

"It is obvious that the migrant situation is a great strain," added Lena Nitz, the director of the police union, in an interview with TT. "It has become clear that the situation is completely unsustainable."

The number of threats or violent incidents at asylum shelters more than doubled last year, from 148 incidents in 2014 to 322 in 2015, according to The Local, which cited statistics from the Swedish Migration Agency. Those same facilities have become targets for immigration opponents, with at least two dozen centers damaged by arson last year, the newspaper reported.

More recently, Lofven slammed Swedish police for "betraying" women by allegedly covering up allegations that they were sexual harassed by recent immigrants at a music festival in Stockholm, according to the Guardian. The newspaper also reported similar attacks on women in Malmo on New Year's Eve. Hmmmm..........Motive .....A woman telling a male to behave?

Turkey detains 23 ISIS suspects and 21 children on Syria border

Turkey detains 23 ISIS suspects and 21 children on Syria border. (DS).

Turkish forces have detained 23 suspected ISIS extremists along with 21 children who were trying to illegally cross over from Syria, the army said Sunday.

The suspects, whose nationalities were not disclosed, were captured Saturday as they tried enter the Elbeyli district of Turkey's southern Kilis province.

"Twenty-three people suspected of being Daesh (ISIS) terror group members, together with 21 children, were caught," said the army in a statement, without giving any other details.

Turkey has over the last year been told by its Western allies to urgently step up efforts to stop the flow of extremists across its borders to and from Syria.

The army reported Saturday that it had Friday also captured six ISIS suspects, along with eight children, who were trying to cross illegally from Syria to Turkey in the same area. Hmmm........No word if those children are actually 'Caliphate cubs'? These 'Caliphate cubs' are my biggest fear as we are not prepared for such a scenario, better to prevent than to cure.

Related:

In 2014, at least 23,000 unaccompanied minors applied for asylum in Europe, and while estimates vary, aid agencies say as much as 7 percent of the 700,000 refugees who have applied for asylum in Europe this year are unaccompanied minors. That amounts to around 49,000.

From January to October 2015, over 23,000 unaccompanied and separated children had sought asylum in Sweden – the top destination for UASC in Europe – more than did in the entire EU last year. The majority are adolescent males

Video - 'Child Abuse' - ISIS "Caliphate Cub" Toddler Undergoes Military Training under Live Fire.

ISIS "Caliphate Cub" Toddler Undergoes Military Training under Live Fire.(Memri).

A video-clip posted on the Internet on October 15, 2015 shows a toddler in paramilitary garb crawling under barbed wire, as adults shout at him to cry: "Allah Akbar" and live fire is seen around him. The tweet says that he is an ISIS "Caliphate Cub." Hmmm....... These people must be brought to justice, none of them should escape... Just like NAZI war criminals.