At training camp, children told to behead dolls as Islamic State militants

Raqa, in the Euphrates Valley northeast of Damascus, is the de facto Syrian capital of the Islamic State group, which controls large swathes of Syria and neighbouring Iraq, where it rules with an iron fist.

It is part of a concerted effort by the extremists to build a new generation of militants.

One of the boys, “Yahya” a 14-year-old who escaped from the IS training camp in northern Iraq, told AP that he and the other boys were made to watch beheading videos and were told by their captors that this would be an act that they would one day be performing.

There may have been fighters with the country’s Popular Mobilisation Forces inside the 30,000-capacity stadium when it was destroyed, military and security officials in Anbar said, but they were unable to provide a specific estimate and officials with the PMF were not aware of casualties.

The children each received a doll and a sword. “I knew I wouldn’t be able to behead someone like that”. Training included extensive Quranic studies, exercises, and weapon drills, including learning how to shoot someone from close range.

“I was scared when I saw that”, he said of the videos showing beheadings.

“We [the children] were beating each other because it would make us tougher and they said it wouldn’t hurt next time”.

The report said that young people are shown videos at street booths in ISIL-held areas, where the terrorists hold outdoor events for children and give them drinks and sweets. “(The trainer) said that if I didn’t do it, he’d shoot me”, he said.

They were told if they did not perform the tasks they were given, they would be killed.

According to AP, Yayha and his younger brother had been kidnapped from their home in the Iraqi town of Sulagh and were taken by the militants to Raqqa and put in the Farouq military camp. “They beat us everywhere with their fists”.

The extremist group claims to run hundreds of training camps for children, with the so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reporting that at least 1,100 children aged below 16 have joined the ranks of ISIL so far this year alone.

Yahya escaped in early March while the ISIS fighters had left camp to carry out an attack. A U.S.-led coalition also bombs IS targets in Syria on a daily basis, but the two sides say their overflights and strikes are not coordinated.