The Islamic State targets Muslims in Bosnia and Herzegovina in latest recruitment efforts

• A recently released recruitment video shows Bosnian IS fighters calling on Muslims from the Balkans–and specifically in Bosnia and Herzegovina–to launch attacks in their home cities and emigrate to fight in the Middle East.
• Young men in Bosnia are particularly vulnerable to such recruitment efforts, where they face a 63% youth unemployment rate, precarious social conditions, and poor prospects.
• Security and counterterrorism efforts have been largely uncoordinated and lacking a grand strategy, even in the wake of one radical’s attack on a police station in late April that left one officer and the gunman dead.

“Returning foreign fighters from Syria and Iraq – battle-hardened, skilled in handling arms and explosives, and ideologically radicalised – pose a direct threat not only to the security of Bosnia and Herzegovina, but also of the region and beyond.”

Read the full story at the Guardian.

(Image Credit: Al Hayat, via the Guardian)