Extremist Al-Qaeda-linked groups are recruiting scores of young men from Sidon’s Ain al-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp and training them, a newspaper report claimed.
“An unprecedented recruitment campaign, directly through chiefs of [Islamist] groups or via the internet,” is taking place in several neighborhoods of the refugee camp, “specifically in the Al-Taware’ quarter,” the report published Thursday in Al-Joumhouria daily explained.
It added that the young men are being recruited either for the Al-Nusra Front or for the Abdullah Azzam Brigades, both of which are connected to Al-Qaeda.
“The number of members of these groups has exceeded 120, and they are now present in the Al-Taware’ neighborhood, headed by Haitham and Mohammad al-Shaabi, in the Al-Safsaf quarter under Oussama al-Shahabi, in the Al-Manshiyyeh area, headed by Toufic Taha, and in the Al-Tayra neighborhood under the command of Bilal Badr,” the newspaper detailed.
It went on to note that “70 members of the Takfiri movements entered the camp just last week.”