Kidnapped boy who escaped Islamic State prison in Deir Ezzor is trained to kill at thirteen

A 13-year-old boy, kidnapped by Islamic State, was trained to kill and even conduct a suicide attack before he managed to escape from the group’s prison in Baghuz, east Deir Ezzor, footage shared on February 27 shows. Kurdish news outlet ANHA shows Milad Hussain telling them that he and his friends were playing football in their home town in Sinjar when Islamic State kidnapped them and their mothers and took them to Mosul city, in Iraq.

The boys were then separated from their mothers and transferred to a prison in Tal Afar city, about 63 km west of Mosul.“They beat us and forced us to worship their religion and taught us the Quran, religious law and prayers. Then they sent us to a camp, where they would beat us if we didn’t study by heart,” he recalls. Clad in military clothing, Milad claims that there were 21 boys in the prison but that he and another boy managed to escape.

“I want to see my mother and my siblings. I have not seen them for four years,” he adds. ANHA’s report added that Milad said Islamic State trained them to fight and to conduct suicide attacks. Footage shared on February 26 shows Milad and 15-year-old Fawaz Khuder after they escaped the last Islamic State enclave in east Deir Ezzor and arriving to SDF-held areas. Islamic State kidnapped thousands of women and children during an assault on the region of Sinjar, also known as Shingal, in 2014. Women were often kept as slaves, the United Nations (UN) said.

A UN report on June 2016, said that Islamic State had committed genocide against the Yazidi population and had “subjected every Yazidi woman, child or man that it has captured to the most horrific of atrocities.” Islamic State used boys as part of its propaganda narrative, calling them the “Cubs of the Caliphate.” The militia shared videos showing them training in camps and conducing executions.

Source: NT News