Islamic State (ISIS) terrorists have made a name for themselves through their brutality, beheading victims in front of children and having children execute victims with a gun, but in what may be a first for the jihadist group ISIS on Sunday released a video of children beheading a victim.
In the video nine apparent Shi’ite victims are beheaded by children, reports Channel 2.
At the start of the horrific clip, a child is seen sharpening knives for the inhumane act, as armed youths hustle the victims clothed in orange jumpsuits forward to be butchered.
“We won’t forget what the (Shi’ite) regime did in the 80s in Hamah,” the ISIS spokesperson is heard saying in the video, which evidently was filmed in the western Syrian city of Hamah. “We won’t forget a drop of blood that was spilled on this holy earth. We will avenge them.”
The child executioners belong to ISIS’s “Cubs of the Caliphate” children’s brigade, which trains children up to the age of 15, at which point they can choose to become full ISIS members with salaries.
Last Tuesday the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights revealed ISIS has already trained more than 400 children in Syria as fighters in 2015 alone.
Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said “ISIS officials try to woo children with money, weapons and teaching them how to drive cars.” He noted the children aren’t forced to fight, but “since there are no (non-ISIS) schools, no work, this is what kids do during the day.”
Aside from using the children for intelligence gathering missions, Abdel Rahman said ISIS had already used at least ten children as suicide bombers in Syria and had put together all-child battle units.