“They also recruit 13-year-olds” –

The threat of terrorism on the Paris 2024 Olympics. The Summer Games are perhaps the most global event that exists and the attention of the world’s intelligence agencies is on the French capital and the risk of possible attacks. The most significant threat could come from Isis-K, the Islamic State of Khorasan, protagonist of various bloody attacks such as the one at the Crocus Hall in Moscow, Russia. According to a Europol report cited by CNN, the jihadist group could be targeting young people, perhaps even “a thirteen-year-old”, because they are “less suspicious”. Very young who could be recruited on social platforms.

According to Europol data cited by CNN, “the number of planned attacks has more than quadrupled” since 2022. The majority of those involved are young extremists, as Peter Neumann, professor of security studies at King’s College London, points out, explaining that of the 58 arrested for the 27 foiled attacks or plots linked to ISIS since October, 38 were between the ages of 13 and 19. Two of these 27 plots involved teenagers with the aim of attacking the Olympics, Neumann explains. ISIS would therefore be entrusting the new season of attacks to the very young. A British security source told CNN that the so-called “direct terrorist threat” has become a growing concern in the last 18 months, with a particular focus on ISIS-K and the role of young people. “Groups like ISIS-K specifically target young teenagers,” Neumann said. “They might not be very helpful. They might be wrong. They might change their minds,” but they are “less suspicious. Who would think a 13-year-old is a terrorist? It only takes one,” he said.

It’s not just preventive suspicions. There is already investigative evidence. At the end of May, French prosecutors charged an 18-year-old of Chechen origin with “criminal terrorist association,” accusing him of trying to target spectators in Saint-Étienne during the Olympics, according to a note from Lise Jaulin, spokeswoman for French anti-terrorism prosecutors. About two weeks earlier, a 15-year-old and an 18-year-old were arrested in the northeast and south of France for planning a terrorist attack. In April, a 16-year-old from the Haute-Savoie department in southeast France was arrested after studying how to make an explosive belt and die as a martyr for ISIS by targeting the Olympics. The Games will be held from July 26 to August 11, 2024, and everyone hopes that it will be nothing more than a great sporting celebration.