Pulling off his shirt, they found a 2kg bomb strapped to his skinny frame.
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That was last Sunday.
ISIS had earlier just exploited the children, but lately the terror group has started using the little ones as weapons on the front lines, targeting civilians. But witnesses said the bomber was a child, which would make it the first time the Islamic State militants have used a child bomber in that country. Two other suicide bombers blew themselves up in Kirkuk on Sunday.
Although the Islamic State, also known as ISIS, does not reveal the age of its operatives as it heralds its bombing campaigns, the faces of many look years away from adulthood. They kidnapped him and made him commit such a suicide. Those children are stolen or kidnapped and then forced to belong to their cause.
“Child recruitment across the region is increasing”, Juliette Touma, a UNICEF regional spokesperson, told Reuters.
The distraught child can be seen crying as police take him from the scene.
First aid officers carry an injured man to a hospital on August 20, 2016, in Gaziantep following a late night militant attack carried out by a teenager on a wedding party in southeastern Turkey. That attack is believed to have been carried out by Islamic State. As many as 22 of the dead were under the age of 14. No one claimed the attack, but the Islamic State in the past has targeted Kurdish gatherings to stir ethnic tensions. President Recep Teyyip Erdogan said Sunday the killer was between 12 and 14 years old, but Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said Monday it wasn’t clear whether the bomber was a child or an adult. The explosives vest was later detonated in a controlled explosion, reports Independent.
When children are abducted by terrorists, they are submitted to awful training practices to follow the group’s ideology. He is an Iraqi national from Mosul, the largest urban centre still under militant control, which Iraqi and Kurdish Peshmerga forces backed by United States air strikes are moving to liberate.
Previously, as an intelligence report stated, a hierarchy was followed within the militant group.
“Teenagers are easier to recruit for suicide missions, especially in moments of suffering or despair having lost loved ones”, Reuters quoted Iraqi analyst Hisham al-Hashimi as saying. The Taliban also has used child bombers in Afghanistan and Pakistan to gain access to sensitive targets without arousing suspicions.
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Figures from earlier this year appeared to show the use of child suicide bombers was rising. Human Rights Watch said that since Boko Haram began its attacks in Nigeria in 2009, it has recruited up to thousands of children.
