ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – At least 500 Iraqi children from Diyala and Anbar provinces have been kidnapped by the Islamic State supposedly to used as soldiers or suicide bombers, Iraqi provincial officials told foreign media. The advance of the Islamic State group, or ISIS, into the Sunni-dominated province of Anbar resulted in the abduction of at least 400 children, Farhan Mohammad, a member of the Anbar provincial council, told Turkey’s Anadolu News Agency on Saturday. “Daesh [ISIS] has taken them to their bases in Iraq and Syria,” Mohammad said. He said the extremists might use the children in their special camp for young soldiers called “Cubs of Caliphate.” According to Mohammad, the children were taken from the Anbar towns of Ar Rutba, Al-Qaim, Anah, and Rawa in a week-long abduction spree. In the same article by Anadolu, Qassim al-Saidi, police chief of Diyala province, was quoted as saying more than 100 children were kidnapped by ISIS in his province. “The children are under the age of 16, and they [ISIS] are going to brainwash the kids to become suicide bombers,” he reportedly said. The militants previously showed the “Cubs of Caliphate” camp in a propaganda video. The footage showed young boys undergoing military training, as well as praying, discussing Islam and reciting verses from the Quran. According to recent reports, some of the children kidnapped in Iraq by ISIS militants could be as young as 5 years old. ISIS has set up different camps for young children, aimed to deliver ideological and military training. These camps are reportedly based in the group’s strongholds in Iraq and Syria, such as the group’s self-claimed capital of Mosul and Syria’s Raqqa. Several thousand Kurdish Yezidis, including women, boys and girls, are also still in ISIS captivity.
