A new video released by the Islamic State (ISIS) on Sunday claims to show young children being trained as the next generation of fighters.
The
Daily Mail reported than some of the boys in the video appear to be as young as 5 years old.
According to
NBC News the video was shot at Al Farouk training camp for "cubs," in Raqqa, Syria, where ISIS claims its capital.
The video claims the 80 children featured are the children of foreign fighters who have joined ISIS, NBC reported. An instructor says the most of the children are in the second phase of training and that they represent the next generation of ISIS.
Children are seen answering religious questions and quoting the Quran.
The Daily Mail reports the video is slickly produced, like other videos made by the group, such as the burning death of a downed Jordanian pilot earlier this year.
The video lasts nine minutes and is in Arabic. Rows of camouflage-clad young boys can be seen in formation following the instructions of an adult. They are wearing black headbands associated with ISIS.
At one point they kneel in prayer as the instruction kneels with two rifles standing in front of him.
NBC reported that recruits under 15 are being trained to use AK-47s and are given dolls to teach them how to behead people.
"[T]hen they make them watch a beheading, and sometimes they force them to carry the heads in order to cast the fear away from their hearts," an Iraqi security official told NBC.
Syria Deeply reported in September that many people have fled Raqqa because of forced conscriptions, including the youth training camps.
One father told the website his life was threatened when he opposed his 13-year-old son attending one of the camps. The boy returned home with a blue-eyed, blond doll in an orange jumpsuit. He also had been given a knife and told his homework was to practice beheading.
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