New ISIS Video Highlights What Child Soldiers Go Through
The latest in a series of ISIS propaganda videos showcasing child soldiers has been released, and the details are chilling: It depicts recruits as young as 5 going through drills at a military training camp for “cubs” in Syria.
“They taught us how to slit throats and how to blow ourselves up,” a 15-year-old boy who escaped the school tells Reuters. He and his brother, 11, spent seven months in training before managing to get away; their Yazidi (a Kurdish religious community) family had been taken captive by the Islamic state and forced to convert to Islam when their Iraq town was captured by militants.
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“They tell us that we are going to fight Yazidis and kill them because they are infidels, and if you die, you will go to heaven and they will go to hell,” the boy says.
Other recently released ISIS videos have featured young boys involved in a shooting drill inside a “kill house,” or indoor firing range, where they learn how to take control of a residence and seize hostages; shown kids executing Syrian soldiers; and showcased a boy in fatigues who held a rocket-propelled grenade and threatened to behead President Barack Obama.
New ISIS Video Highlights What Child Soldiers Go Through