Former French Soldiers Join ’ISIL’

Local Editor

Soldiers previously in service under the French Army joined the extremist fighters in Syria.

According to a defense military source, a dozen former French soldiers, mostly from Special Forces and the Foreign Legion, have joined extremists fighting in Syria and Iraq.

This comes as the government readies a new multimillion anti-terror plan.
Reports of French ex-military turning to fighting first appeared on Radio France Internationale (RFI) and in L'Opinion daily.

The information was later confirmed by an anonymous defense ministry source, who said "We estimate around a dozen former troops have joined these networks". He continued, "Our concern is not former soldiers... It's preventing the phenomenon of radicalization within our forces."

"The cases of former soldiers being tempted by "jihadist" adventure are extremely rare," was all that Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said.
Points of views on the matter varied. David Thomson, RFI journalist and author of The French extremists believed that no one should underestimate those rare cases. He explained that "These people who come [to Syria and Iraq] are already fighters and they know the way the French troops fight".

Based on the report, some of the fighters confessed to being former French soldiers on social networks, they also served in the Foreign Legion and former paratroopers. Others are explosives experts, young people in their twenties. Some have been allegedly converted [to "Islam"], others are from Arab culture".

Another example of a French soldier gone extremist is when he was hired by a private security company to work on oil facilities in the Arabian Peninsula.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team