Frenchman Helped Girl to Join ISIL

KABUL: (Middle East Press) A Frenchman accused of helping a 14-year-old runaway girl try to join the ISIL Takfiri group by arranging her travel is on trial on terrorism charges.

Friday’s trial of Riad Ben Cheikh sheds light on the shadowy networks that recruit European teenage girls to join fighters in Syria.

The girl was in contact with an ISIL recruiter through Facebook who persuaded her to join him in Syria, where he promised to marry her and teach her to fight.

Ben Cheikh reportedly booked a hotel and paid her fare to the airport, where she was detained in line to board a flight to Istanbul.

France has stepped up its crackdown on supporters of armed groups like ISIL and al-Qaeda since a number of attacks, including the deadly shooting at the offices of the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, rocked the country in January.

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