Islamic State 'Has 300 Recruiters Online In US'

At least 300 Americans, nearly a third of
them apparently women, are acting as
Islamic State recruiters on social media,
according to a study.
They primarily use
Twitter to urge
sympathisers to travel overseas to join the self-
declared caliphate, or to plan attacks within the
US, found George Washington University's
Program on Extremism.
There are currently 900 active investigations into
Islamic State sympathisers in all 50 US states,
according to the report, titled ISIS in America:
From Retweets to Raqqa.
Some 71 individuals have been charged in the
US with Islamic State-related activities since
March 2014 - 58 of them US citizens.
Fifty-six of the total charged were arrested this
year alone, found the researchers.
Islamic State recruits in the American legal
system ranged in age from 15 to 47, with an
average age of 26.
Video: The Rise Of Islamic State
About 40% of them were converts to Islam,
according to the researchers.
The study cites US authorities as recording that
some 250 Americans have travelled or
attempted to travel to Syria and Iraq to join the
Islamic State.
The extremists group's US sympathisers ranged
from single mothers to teenage girls, petty
criminals and college students.
The study's authors, who monitored the
recruiting in real time, wrote: "In one case the
seemingly naive individual posted general
questions about religion, to which ISIS
supporters quickly responded in a calm and
authoritative manner.
Video: Inside The IS Social Media Centre
"After a few weeks, the accounts of hardened
ISIS supporters slowly introduced increasingly
ardent views into the conversation.
"The new recruit was then invited to continue
the conversion privately, often via Twitter's
Direct Message feature or on other private
messaging platforms."
The report also looked at how US jihadists meet
and recruit in person, uncovering small groups
of apparent Islamic State sympathisers in a
number of cities, including in Texas and the
Midwest.