The Islamic State group has abducted 182 children in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul to train them as militants and use them as suicide bombers, a representative of the Kurdistan Democratic Party in the city, was quoted as saying by the local media on Saturday.
“During the past few days, IS militants kidnapped 182 children from Mosul … the children were transferred to centers for ideological training, weapons and suicide operations,” Saeed Mamouzini was quoted as saying by the local Iraqi News portal, Sputnik reported.
He added that the children kidnapped by IS are reportedly 10 to 15 years old.
IS militants seized Iraq’s second largest city in June last year after the US trained and equipped Iraqi Army fled, leaving behind significant amounts of US military hardware.
On Wednesday, a UN envoy to Iraq said IS holds approximately one-third of the country, a year after the fall of Mosul.
In one of the IS’ latest atrocities, the group’s Egyptian affiliate claimed planting a bomb on Thursday, which the army said killed four soldiers near Rafah, a town on the border with Gaza Strip.
This is while Turkey launched an air campaign against IS positions in Syria for the first on Friday after the first major cross-border clashes between Turkey and IS extremists on Thursday left one Turkish soldier and one militant dead.
Earlier in the week, 32 people were killed in a suicide bombing in the Turkish town of Suruc on the Syrian border, blamed on IS.
