Reports from the city of Raqqa have said that children as young as 10 were made to behead captured Syrian soldiers, as a compulsory test to graduate from the ISIS boot camp.
A report published by the activist group "Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently" found that the beheading of hundreds of Syrian soldiers by children trained by ISIS took place on 28 August.
"The executed soldiers were captured [from] the 17th Syrian Army division base, the 93rd brigade base and the Al-Tabqa military airbase," the report noted.
The Islamic State militants, who have been running several boot camps referred to as 'Cubs of Islamic State' or 'Cubs of al-Baghdadi', brought in a fresh batch of graduating students and told them to perform the beheadings.
The report noted that the children were told that "Whoever failed to complete the beheading does not get to graduate..."
Over 100 captured Syrian soldiers loyal to President Bashar al-Assad were executed by the 'Cubs of Islamic State.' The children recruited by ISIS, who beheaded the Syrian soldiers, were from the city of Al-Ikershi east of Al-Raqqa.
The report noted that one of the main ISIS boot camps is Al-Tabqa, which is mainly for children under the age of 16. And in this camp, which is located in Raqqa's western countryside, over 350 children have undergone intensive training on firing weapons and grenades, in addition to instructions on making car bombs and becoming suicide bombers.
The report observed that with widespread poverty and no educational system left in the city, it is often the parents of these children, who take them to these camps, where they are brainwashed by the Islamic State's clergymen.
The United Nations, which has vehemently criticised ISIS for its 'inhumane acts', has stated in a report that it had proof that the Islamic State militants have recruited children as young as 10 in the ISIS stronghold of Raqqa, Syria.
