Islamic State Has Recruited Some 400 Children in Syria in 2015 - Watchdog

According to the SOHR, the so-called Ashbal al-Khilafah, purported to be a loose-knit recruitment agency, operates in ISIL-controlled areas and attracts children to join the jihadist group. Children are reportedly sent to camps, where they undergo religious and military training.

“The Shariaa course firms IS ideology inside the brain of those children while the military one teaches them how to use weapons and fight the enemies during clashes, battles and storms. IS also tries to lure the children by money, weapons and cars in order to convince them to join its own camps,” the SOHR said on its website, adding that the rebel group sometimes uses children to work as spies and agents.

In January, the SOHR reported that ISIL sent at least 140 members, a majority of whom were under 18, to battles in the Syrian city of Kobani. At least six children have died in the clashes.

The Islamic State is a jihadist group notorious for its human rights abuses, including multiple kidnappings and killings. In 2014, it took large territories in Iraq and Syria and established a caliphate. Affiliated groups operate in North Africa, Yemen, Pakistan and Afghanistan. ISIL recruits fighters from around the world.

The group’s intensive propaganda efforts on social networking websites especially target young people. The ISIL has been reported to recruit thousands of Westerners. According to a 2014 public opinion poll conducted in France by ICM Research exclusively for Sputnik News Agency, 26 percent of French youth who participated in the poll expressed some form of support for Islamic State.