Rise of the mini-jihadis

In the latest disturbing PR stunt from the terror group, children are seen attending the terror training camp, named the Al Farouq Institute for Cubs, in the Raqqa province of Syria.

The nine-minute video, which was posted online today, shows camouflage-clad boys standing in formation and obeying the commands of a militant teacher.

Set to Arabic music, the film shows several rows of young boys, who all wear black bandanas bearing insignia associated with the group, performing drills.

As they bend and stand to attention as instructed, others stand behind them holding up flags.

The 'teacher' - also in camouflage - asks questions and the children shout the answer in unison.

The boys are also seen as they pray in rows - but chillingly, they are led by a teacher who prays in front of a pair of guns. 

While the recruitment of child soldiers is a war crime, Islamic State have long groomed children to take part in jihad - in a similar way to how Nazi Germany preyed on impressionable youngsters with the creation of the Hitler Youth.

Pictures posted on ISIS-linked social media accounts have included babies posing with guns and young children holding up the heads of beheading victims.

The terror group has reportedly been recruiting children under 15 to special camps established specifically to brainwash minors with their extremist ideology. Children are said to be taught how to use weapons and even show how to behead using dolls.

'They teach them how to use AK-47s,' an Iraqi security official told NBC News. 

'They use dolls to teach them how to behead people, then they make them watch a beheading, and sometimes they force them to carry the heads in order to cast the fear away from their hearts.' 

Since ISIS made Raqqa its de facto capital, reports have told of many of the area's citizens fleeing their homes due to forced conscription.

A father said his life was threatened when he opposed his 13-year-old son's attendance at a training camp.

Syria Deeply reported the man describe the process as 'brainwashing the children'. When his son returned home, his mother found a blond, blue-eyed doll as well as a large knife given to her son by militants. 

(dailymail.co.uk)