Iraqi boys’ harrowing tale of captivity, training by IS
They made the captive children, malnourished and weak from hunger, fight over a single tomato. Then the Islamic State group militants told them, "In paradise, you'll be able to eat whatever you want. But first you have to get to paradise, and you do that by blowing yourself up." The lesson was part of the […]Yesica Fisch and Maya Alleruzzo write for AP:
They made the captive children, malnourished and weak from hunger, fight over a single tomato. Then the Islamic State group militants told them, "In paradise, you'll be able to eat whatever you want. But first you have to get to paradise, and you do that by blowing yourself up."
The lesson was part of the indoctrination inflicted by the militants on boys from Iraq's Yazidi religious minority after the extremist group overran the community's towns and villages in northern Iraq. The group forced hundreds of boys, some as young as 7 or 8, into training to become fighters and suicide bombers, infusing them with its murderous ideology.
Now boys who escaped captivity are struggling to regain some normalcy, living in camps for the displaced along with what is left of their families. After surviving beatings, watching horrific atrocities, being held for months or years apart from their parents, losing loved ones and narrowly escaping death themselves, they are plagued by nightmares, anxiety and outbursts of violence.
