Islamic State trains young boys to ‘practice beheading on dolls’
Yahya and his brother spent five months in training before managing to escape an IS training camp
Boys as young as eight are forced into training. PHOTO: THE TELEGRAPH
A Yazidi boy who escaped an Islamic State (IS) training camp related that he was made to practice beheading on dolls and was forced to fight his own brother.
When IS fighters took over Yazidi towns in northern Iraq last year, they killed older men and imprisoned many women and girls. The young boys, however, were taken to training camps where the IS forced them to convert to Islam and trained them into becoming fighters.
Read: Suicide bomber kills 31 in Turkey attack blamed on Islamic State
Yahya, 14, and his brother spent five months in training before managing to escape the ‘Farouq Institute For Cubs’ in Raqqa a few months ago.
Yahya recounted, "They brought dolls and they told us how to hold the sword and how to chop off the head. The first time I hit it I couldn't cut it, neither the second and third time. But then they taught me how to hold the sword and they told me how to hit and they told me that it was the head of the infidels."
Read: Islamic State bans private internet access in Syria bastion: activists
The training camps are being run by IS to build a new generation of militants.
This article originally appeared on The Telegraph
When IS fighters took over Yazidi towns in northern Iraq last year, they killed older men and imprisoned many women and girls. The young boys, however, were taken to training camps where the IS forced them to convert to Islam and trained them into becoming fighters.
Read: Suicide bomber kills 31 in Turkey attack blamed on Islamic State
Yahya, 14, and his brother spent five months in training before managing to escape the ‘Farouq Institute For Cubs’ in Raqqa a few months ago.
Yahya recounted, "They brought dolls and they told us how to hold the sword and how to chop off the head. The first time I hit it I couldn't cut it, neither the second and third time. But then they taught me how to hold the sword and they told me how to hit and they told me that it was the head of the infidels."
Read: Islamic State bans private internet access in Syria bastion: activists
The training camps are being run by IS to build a new generation of militants.
This article originally appeared on The Telegraph