TRIPOLI, Lebanon — Zakaria Al-Adl was presumed ato have
attempted a sea escape to
Europe after he had gone missing over the summer, but
then the young Lebanese man turned up dead in Iraq.
اضافة اعلان
A native of the northern Lebanese city of
Tripoli, the 22-year-old is one of at least eight men who have been
reported killed in
Iraq since December 2021, as a suspected Islamist extremist
militant.
They all hail from impoverished Tripoli
districts and were allegedly lured into joining Daesh by the promise of a
decent salary, according to a security official.
Dozens more from the same Mediterranean port
city are believed to have recently joined Daesh ranks with their recruitment
handled by a
Tripoli extremists who lives outside Lebanon, the official said,
speaking on condition of anonymity about the sensitive issue.
"We didn't know he was in Iraq until we
were notified of his death" in December, Zakaria's mother, Ghufran Al-Adl,
56, told AFP from their one-bedroom apartment in the Bab Al-Tabbaneh
neighborhood, one of the country's poorest.
Zakaria had been missing since last summer,
but it wasn't until the Iraqi army in December published images and videos of
slain
Daesh fighters in Iraq's western Anbar desert that his family came to
know of his death.
His brother Ali Al-Adl played one such video
on his phone, which appeared to show the corpse of Zakaria beside another body
on the hood of a car.
In a statement at the time, the Iraqi army
said it had killed 10 Daesh Islamist extremists in strikes and clashes.
Youth 'on the sidelines'
Zakaria's family said poverty and not
ideological affiliation is what primarily drove the young man to join Daesh
ranks, at a time when
Lebanon is grappling with an unprecedented financial
crisis.
"When he disappeared, we thought that
he was planning to go to Sweden illegally," Ali said.
"He left because of poverty," Ali
said of his brother, who used to run a vegetable cart.
Ghufran, who is in urgent need of heart
surgery that her family cannot afford, said that her son "lived and died
on the sidelines".
Since August, dozens of young men have
disappeared from Tripoli, which has been especially hard hit by the country's
financial crash.
"The number of young men who joined IS
(Daesh) is estimated at 48," said a security official, explaining that the
latest wave of recruits left Lebanon on January 18.
"Their families informed authorities of
their whereabouts after receiving calls from them while they were in
Iraq," the same source added.
Only five of the 48 have yet to be accounted
for, the official added.
Even before the 2019 onset of Lebanon's
financial crisis, Lebanon's second city was widely seen as a volatile militant
bastion.
Its poorest neighborhoods have been major
supporters of Sunni militants responsible for attacks against the army and
involved in extremist activities in Tripoli and beyond.
Thousands have been detained on suspicion of
terrorism links, many without trial.
The security official believes that
"financial motives" are the main reason Tripoli's youth are joining Daesh
ranks.
The group is luring its recruits with the
promise of "salaries reaching up to $5,000 a month", the official
said.
Iraq's National Security Adviser
QassemAl-Araji said Sunday that Baghdad has started talks with Lebanese authorities
over the Daesh threat.
Lebanon's interior minister is expected to
visit Baghdad soon to discuss concerns, he added.
‘Your darling is dead'
In January this year, the Wadi Al-Nahleh
village near Tripoli received news that Omar Seif was among five of its
residents killed in Iraq.
Omar left Tripoli on December 30 and died
nearly a month later, according to his family.
Omar's mother found out about it via
WhatsApp, according to a relative who spoke to AFP on condition of anonymity.
She had sent Omar a message asking:
"How are you, my darling?"
The response she received, from a number
Omar had previously used to call her, read: "Your darling is dead."
The Iraqi army issued a statement naming
Omar and two of his cousins as Lebanese citizens killed in air strikes
targeting IS fighters in the eastern province of Diyala.
AFP had met Omar's mother two weeks before
his death.
She claimed poverty took her son, an
ex-convict detained on suspicion of involvement in attacks against the army —
and who had virtually no job prospects after being released from jail.
"He was desperate," she told AFP
then, asking not to be identified for security reasons. "No one wanted to
hire him... so he worked as a day laborer."
Omar was planning to marry his fiancée
within the coming two months which caused him to obsess over finances, his
mother added, blaming the Lebanese state for her son's fate.
When asked if she feared he might have
joined Daesh, she said: "I am afraid he might have... but better die there
than ever return to Lebanon, even if that means never seeing him again."
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