In Southern Turkey, a 13-year-old boy is trained to join Islamic State.”Abu Hattab” spends his days watching jihadist videos and chatting on Facebook with IS Fighters.
He born in Syria, after Syria crises, his parents moved to Turkey. He was first radicalized last year, joining the jihadist group Sham al-Islam.
According to United Nations report released last month, Islamic State influencing children of age 13 to 20 years.
One video posted online, called “cubs of the Islamic State”, appears to show a battalion of children dressed in full military garb, holding weapons and standing next to an IS black flag.
In the southern Turkish city of Gaziantep, a Syrian civil society activist who has seen his two younger brothers 13 and 15 years old fall victim to a recruitment drive by ISIS, he fears that both his brothers will be killed.
Syria’s war is blackening the formative years of a generation .And militants are preying upon children as tools of that war, their innocence stolen too early.