Fanatics paying illegal migrants to fight for them

ISLAMIC State militants in Libya are recruiting desperate migrants into their ranks by offering them monthly salaries, a military commander said last night.

Major General Mohamed Al-Zain warned that illegal immigration in Libya had become a ‘ticking time bomb’, with the prospect of migrants being paid to carry out terror attacks.

IS has found it easier to target those fleeing African nations because they are poor and easily influenced.

He said: ‘Money is the number one incentive of recruitment outside of the ideological convictions.’ They are being recruited to fight ‘in the early stages of them entering Libya’, as well in their countries of origin, he added.

They have moved to the desert and the valleys where they are plotting attacks.

His comments came as the Libyan coastguard said migrants’ hope of getting to Europe had dwindled after Italy closed its borders and they stepped up their rescue efforts.

General Al-Zain was speaking from Khoms, a coastal city in the war-torn nation where migrants and refugees have set off for Europe in dinghies. He said: ‘With regards to illegal immigration it is not only a source of funding for Daesh but it is also a way for them to recruit and increase their forces.

‘They end up recruiting them and using them as fighters and this is something we saw a great deal of in Sirte.’

He was one of the commanders of the 2016 military operation against IS in its former stronghold of Sirte, Colonel Gaddafi’s home town. He said that at that time migrants were paid 1,500 Libyan dinars (£834) a month to fight for them.