ISIS deploy child soldiers in Mosul to assert control

(IraqiNews.com) Nineveh – Islamic State militants have deployed armed kids in Mosul’s Old City as means to give impression of control over its last bastion in Iraq in face of security campaigns seeking to liberate the city, Alsumaria News reported.

The kids, infamously known as “Cubs of the Caliphate”, have suddenly reappeared in the alleys, armed with light weapons and explosive belts, in an attempt to show that the group was still in control of the city despite consecutive victories by the security forces and allied militias advancing to the city, a local source told the network, on condition of anonymity.

ISIS is known to have opened training camps for minors since it took over Mosul in June 2014 to train them on using weapons and carrying out suicide attacks, in some cases forcing a number of them to change their faiths.