Imagine the horror of seeing a child in a video executing an individual. Islamic State (IS) raised the brutality of their violence by showcasing children as executioners in their propaganda videos. The first IS child propaganda video was released on 13 January 2015. Entitled, Uncovering an Enemy Within, the video featured a young Kazakh boy, Abdullah, executing two men by shooting them in the back of their heads. The men were purportedly Russian spies.
The youngest European child to be showcased in an IS propaganda video was a four-year-old British child called Isa Dare. He is the son of Grace “Khadija” Dare who married a Swedish IS fighter called Abu Bakr. In December 2014, Bakr died in the global coalition air raid against IS. Nicknamed Junior Jihadi, the four-year old was given a central role in the video. He used a remote control and blew up a car with four alleged spies. Towards the end of the video, a British teenager warned Prime Minister David Cameron to get the British army ready to fight IS child soldiers, pointing to Junior Jihadi.
Read more at the Global Network on Extremism and Technology
