The arrest took place two days after a bomber detonated explosives at a wedding party in southeastern Turkey, killing at least 54 people on behalf of the Islamic State terror group.
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A security official said “there is a risky campaign tonight against Kirkuk”.
Today (Monday), a 12-year-old boy wearing an explosive belt was arrested in Kirkuk by the Iraqi security forces moments before he was able to blow himself up. The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the mosque bombing. He arrived in Kirkuk a week ago.
Three people were injured in one attack while in the other there were no casualties. It added that in most cases child soldiers would fight alongside adults in Iraq and Syria rather than having their own units or divisions. These so-called cubs of the caliphate are inducted into ISIS’ campaign of violence through a myriad of grim training practices, with children as young as 8 reconditioned to follow the terror group’s ideology, according to United Nations reports. He is an Iraqi national from Mosul, the largest urban centre still under militant control, which Iraqi and Kurdish Peshmerga forces backed by US air strikes are moving to liberate.
At least 22 of the victims were under the age of 14, a government official said.
Most militant groups operating during the Second Intifada (2001-2004) claimed not to use children as suicide bombers, but there are differences over the definition of what constitutes a “child” combatant.
Earlier this year, Quilliam, a UK-based think tank released a detailed report titled “Children of Islamic State”, which reveals how ISIS recruits children and then gives them jihad training by indoctrinating them at school, and sometimes at home too.
When children are abducted by terrorists, they are submitted to bad training practices to follow the group’s ideology.
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It is the deadliest bombing this year in Turkey.
