Child bomber stripped of explosive belt

Kirkuk city has witnessed a relative lull since almost two years after the so-called Islamic State (Da’esh) controlled some areas southwest of Kirkuk and the Iraqi troops and Kurdish Peshmerga forces established a security belt around the city.

That was last Sunday. The arrest came about an hour after a suicide bomb outside a Kirkuk Shiite mosque killed the bomber and wounded at least two other people. Turkey has vowed to “completely cleanse” Islamic State militants from its border region. Girls are at the greatest risk of being sold into sexual slavery, while boys are often forced into becoming combatants or suicide bombers.

It is the latest move by ISIS aimed at indoctrinating children in its Iraq and Syria stronghold.

Militants have used children or young adults as suicide bombers in several countries, notably Nigeria, but this appeared to be the first such attack in Turkey.

Little has been publicly released about the attacker in the Gaziantep bombing. But security sources said some ceremonies will have to wait because many victims were blown to pieces and DNA tests would be needed to identify them.

The northern and western parts of Iraq have been plagued by gruesome violence ever since Daesh terrorists mounted their offensive in June 2014.

The boy had earlier fled Mosul, Iraq’s second city, which is still under ISIS control although government troops are trying to force out the terrorists.

In 2012, a suicide bomber struck outside NATO HQ in Kabul killing six people, including child beggars.

In this still taken from local TV footage, showing a child being restrained by security forces, holding his arms out-stretched as another man cuts off a belt of explosives, Sunday night August 21, 2016, in Kirkuk, Iraq.

It has led to fears children are increasingly being used by ISIS to carry out deadly attacks.

According to Iraqi forces, the child, who is visibly upset in the video when officials tried to remove the explosives, was detained before perpetrating a suicide bombing in the city of Kirkuk.

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Turkish President Recep Erdogan called the assault a “heinous” terror act and blamed the so-called Islamic State group (formerly known as IS, ISIS/ISIL) for the atrocity.