A video depicting children in military fatigues participating in a training camp for "cubs" was released by the Islamic State, showing that it is training kids as young as five to fight in its army.
Fourteen-year-old Raghib al-Yas Ahmed, a Yazidi, was able to escape the camp, and gave lurid details of his time there. He said that he and the other kids were forced to convert to Islam and memorize the Quran, and were put through grueling 12-hour work days in which time was split between studying the Quran and military training. Training involved learning how to fix weapons, slit throats, and perform a suicide bombing.
The kids are being prepared to join in the fight at Kobani, Syria, where they would have to fight Yazidis. According to Ahmed, who would have had to fight his own people, the Islamic State said that should they die in the fight against the Yazidis, they would go to heaven while the Yazidis would go to hell because they were infidels.
Story by Allan Smith and editing by Kristen Griffin
INSIDER is on Facebook Follow us here