Young, radicalized: new profile of IS militants poses threat to France's security

At the week end, a 21-year-old man and his girlfriend, 17, were charged with preparing to carry out a terror attack in France.

The couple, arrested earlier last week in Noisy-Le- Sec, northeast Paris, were also accused of using the encrypted Telegram social media app to contact suspected French extremist Rashid Kassim in Syria, who had used the messaging service to call for more attacks in France.

The young couple was one of scores of schoolboys and young female and male presumed assailants who planned "imminent" and "violent" terrorist acts, and who were arrested last month.

In July, two men aged 19 killed a priest in an Islamic-State-inspired attack in a church in northern France.

In the following weeks, a female commando planned an attack using a car loaded with gas cylinders in the French capital. The youngest of the three women, 19, was already suspected by police of wanting to go and fight for the Islamic State in Syria. She had written a letter pledging allegiance to the militant Islamist group.

Young faces and quite radicalized militants, a new profile of Islamic State followers that is testing French government security, which also raises questions about the reasons pushing teens to choose radicalization.

To Serge Hefez, a psychiatrist who specializes in de-radicalization, "teenagers are the recruits of choice for Daesh (Islamic State) as they are fragile and easy to manipulate."

"Daesh is using a speech which gives teenagers a truth, a purpose and a meaning for their lives and they are ready to engage themselves," Hafez told news channel BFMTV.

A total of 37 minors are under formal investigation for terrorism in France so far. Fourteen teens, three of whom are girls, are in detention.

French justice minister Jean-Jacques Urvoas said 600 teenagers were being tracked because they were suspected of being in the process of radicalization.

"Targeting teenagers is part of Daesh's strategy adaptability to compensate the loss of many of its fighters. In addition, teenagers are malleable to the group's propaganda," Mathieu Guidere, senior expert of the European program of prevention of radicalization (PPREV-EU) told Xinhua.

In order to stem the growing number of radicalized teens, the government should "launch an awareness campaign which informs young people about the dangers of this type of organization and teach them to have a critical mind to face this propaganda on social networks," he said.

France is in a state of emergency after three attacks this year, including the Bastille Day truck attack in Nice that killed 86 people.

The carnage in the French Rivera followed two waves of attacks last year, one on Nov. 13 in which attacks on restaurants, bars, a concert hall and stadium left 130 people dead.

During a national tribute to Nice attack victims on Saturday, French President Francois Hollande warned the "war (against terrorism) will be long" and "the threat remains high, more than ever." Endit