According to a young escapee, ISIS is brainwashing children in its self declared Islamic caliphate to murder their parents. Identified by his first name Nasir, the 12-year-old revealed that he was one of 60 children being trained to operate as a suicide bomber. After being taken captive, the would-be child soldiers -which included boys as young as five, were told that ISIS commanders cared for them more than their own parents.
According to him,
“The scariest times for us all were when the airstrikes happened. They’d lead all of us underground into the tunnels to hide. They told us the Americans, the unbelievers, were trying to kill us but they, the fighters, they loved us. They would look after us better than our parents. When they were training us they would tell us our parents were unbelievers and that our first job was to go back to kill them.”
Thankfully Nasir who managed to escape their control, made his way to a refugee camp where he was reunited with his family.
“When we escaped and I saw my mother again, it was like coming back to life,” he said.