A detailed report on human rights violations by ISIS in Syria has found that hundreds of Kurdish children from Kobani, taken as hostages, were torture and abused by the Islamic State. Some of them have even been suspended from 'ceiling, with hands tied to the legs' as punishment.
A report by Human Rights Watch titled "Syria: ISIS Tortured Kobani Child Hostages" claims that Kurdish children from the Syrian city of Kobani (or Ain al-'Arab in Arabic) endured months of sufferings at the hands of ISIS before being sent back to their parents.
The HRW report, compiled through interviews of four children who were among over 100 Kobani children taken hostages, found that children whose relatives were members of the Kurdish militia were brutally tortured.
The Islamic State militants in May kidnapped over 250 Kurdish students, who were then studying in Aleppo. ISIS within hours released 100 girls from the group, while all the boys were sent to their religious camps.
A McClatchy report states that the 'families feared that the children will be brainwashed and used in suicide attacks'.
Their fears certainly were not unfounded as HRW found that in the religious camp, which was once a school located in Manbij (a town 55 kilometers southwest of Kobani), was being used to train the Kurdish children in "intense religious instructions."
"The teachers also forced us to watch videos of ISIS in combat and beheading captives," former Kurdish hostages told HRW.
The children interviewed by HRW had several torture stories to tell.
A 15-year old interviewed by HRW narrated one such incident: When a boy accidently muttered "Oh Mother!" and was caught sneaking into another group's room, the ISIS 'teachers' used a wire to tie him up, and suspended him in the air with one foot tied to his hands. The ISIS man then told the boy to always call on God, never his mother.
The boy said that ISIS guards used electric cables to beat children on the hands, back, and soles of their feet.
A 16-year old Kurdish boy said besides beating children with a thick cable with wire running through it, the ISIS would also put children in tyres and beat them up.
"I was once put inside a tyre and beaten. They sometimes beat us for no reason," the boy said.
The children also revealed that the guards and religious teachers at the 'training' school were a combination of Syrian Arabs and people from Jordan, Libya, Tunisia, and Saudi Arabia.
Reports now have appeared that the last batch of 25 Kurdish children out of over 100 also have been released by the ISIS. The four children interviewed by HRW were from this group of children, who are now in Turkey due to the fighting in Kobane.
