"No training," said a senior French intelligence official, whose agency does not permit him to be quoted by name. "These are guys who go to get themselves blown up. Once they arrive at the destination in Iraq, they are very quickly prepared because the insurgents need fighters."
The network may have been crude, but several recruits attained their goal. One 19-year-old Riquet homeboy died in a suicide car bombing in Iraq last summer.
Two others, ages 19 and 24, were killed in combat in the Sunni Triangle west and north of Baghdad. During the battle to retake Fallouja in November, U.S. troops captured Diakhabi, Salah's longtime neighbor, and a 22-year-old from the neighborhood. Another member of the group is in a Syrian jail.
And Salah? His trail stops at the Koranic school in Damascus. He is wanted in France on suspicion of involvement in terrorist activity.
The jihadi homeboys have become the talk of the streets here. Not a good sign, Sakho said, at a time when global conflicts stir youthful imaginations, when kids grow up faster than ever.
"There are kids in this neighborhood who admire them for making a name for themselves," he said. "We don't want them to become heroes."
