Children are supposed to be in schools - learning new things, exploring career options and thinking about their passions. In war-torn nations such as Iraq and Syria, however, children and teenagers are being used as weapons of the heartless terrorist group, the Islamic State, who's been responsible for the series of beheadings, bombings and attacks that shook the world in recent years.
As terrorism issues continue to persist, senior military experts are concerned about the increasing number of child jihadi recruits, whom ISIS might use in carrying out terrorist attacks all over Europe. According to Daily Mirror, the ISIS militants have recruited, kidnapped and forcibly enlisted thousands of young boys to become kid jihadists, suicide bombers and killers.
The young recruits known as the "Cubs of the Caliphate" are then brainwashed, trained and dragged into war. Ex-British Forces leader in Afghanistan Colonel Richard Kemp said that the Islamic State militants are "despicable" as they use women and children as "human shields" who are forced to fight for them.
The ISIS terrorists, however, seemed to be unaffected by the threats of the international governments. As a matter of fact, they recently released a video showing a battalion of young Asian boys trained with AK47 assault rifles.
Speaking of young ISIS jihadists, a child suicide bomber, who was wearing an explosive belt, was thwarted by Iraqi policemen on Aug. 21, Sunday. CNN reported that the 15-year-old boy was suspected in an Islamic State-ordered suicide bombing attempt in Kirkuk, Iraq.
According to the Iraqi authorities, the young suicide bomber has no parents and was only looking for a place to belong when he was abducted by the Islamic State militants. He was then brainwashed and trained to be the group's suicide bomber.
With the growing number young ISIS jihadi recruits, why and how are they recruited? Based on the report of USA Today, these minors are part of the terrorist group's "new generation of believers" who are trained to continue its violent and ruthless philosophy.
To carry out heinous attacks, the children are not only trained as suicide bombers. In fact, they are forced to participate in firing squads and beheading, just like the 2015 ISIS video showing military uniformed children shooting 25 Syrian regime troops at the Palmyra amphitheater.
As of April, the United Nations has recorded 274 child recruits by the Islamic State. But why are children being used to fight and launch attacks? The Christian Science Monitor explained that the ISIS militants' recruitment of young children is the group's change of tactics.
The online news site added that ISIS is using the children as destructive and psychological warfare after they lose control on their territories in Iraq and Syria, not to mention the deaths of its fighters. UNICEF regional spokesperson Juliette Touma also said that child recruitments are increasing as children take more active roles in fighting for the terrorist group.
Unfortunately, ISIS' child recruitment has been viewed as an act of desperation, stressing how it can be morally defeating. But experts emphasized that using children is an effective psychological warfare that cast strength, penetrate defenses and harrow fear into the emotions of the group's enemy soldiers.
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