'I volunteered for suicide attack so I could leave ISIS'

29.12.2014 18:00

This is the dramatic moment a Syrian boy escaped from Isis - by volunteering as a suicide bomber and then handing himself in at the mosque he was meant to blow up.

Usaid Barho had a bomb vest strapped to his body before travelling to a Shi'ite mosque in Baghdad, Iraq where he was supposed to detonate the explosive device.

But rather than killing himself and countless others, he took the brave decision to defy his orders by unzipping his jacket and handing himself in to guards standing nearby.

Video footage shows the tense moment an officer gently removes part of the deadly equipment strapped to his body in front of stunned onlookers.

He had reportedly walked up to the gates of the mosque in the Bayaa district of Baghdad before telling guards he did not want to blow himself up.

The New York Times reports how Usaid had dreamed of becoming a doctor before he said he was recruited by Isis extremists in his hometown of Manbij, Syria.

He joined because he 'believed in Islam' but soon became disillusioned and was told that if he did not fight, Shi'ites would rape his mother.

The New York Times quotes him as saying: 'They seduced us to join the caliphate.

'They planted the idea that Shi'ites are infidels and we had to kill them.'

The newspaper describes how he was taken to a training camp before being given a choice of becoming a fighter or a suicide bomber. He chose the latter hoping he could immediately surrender.

The teenager reportedly said: 'I raised my hand to be a suicide bomber.

'If I were a fighter and tried to surrender to security forces they might kill me, with my gun in my hand.'

Usaid was reportedly transferred from one Isis operative to another as he made his journey towards the mosque before he was finally given his target and informed of his target.

It is believed that the teenager is currently being held at an Iraqi intelligence site.

Earlier this month, experts revealed how Islamic State sees children as central to its plans for a caliphate in the Middle East and encouraged fighters to indoctrinate them to a life of violence from an early age.

There was also evidence that young boys were routinely fighting in battles alongside their parents.

If they are killed images of their bodies are circulated online, where they are praised as martyrs.

Terror soldiers from ISIS will often post images of their youngest fighters online, some barely five or six years old, posing alongside guns, dead bodies, and the group's black and white flag.

Images have also been posted on Twitter of children carrying out mock-beheadings using dolls and action figures, which are then posed to resemble captives murdered by 'Jihadi John'.

In a report on children and ISIS, a spokesman for the Middle Eastern Media Research institute (MEMRI) said: 'Children are central to ISIS; they are the future generation of the defenders of the caliphate and they will continue its legacy.

'ISIS children receive military training, both in camps conducted by the organisation and individually, with ISIS fighters.

'There is little discussion, in the organization and among its supporters, over whether children should be undergoing military training, or even fighting in actual battles.'

(dailymail.co.uk)

ANN.Az

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