ISIS released video today of a training camp of “caliphate cubs” in Mosul that shows boys being groomed for jihad with live-fire exercises and abusive adult trainers.
The boys are masked in the video except for mealtime, when the camera pans away from their faces. Their higher voices and average heights suggest mostly pre-pubescent boys to some in their early teens.
The release comes as ISIS is preparing for its one-year anniversary of sacking Mosul and establishing the caliphate on June 29. The group has put heavy emphasis on raising younger generations as jihadis, including boys who were already living in areas seized by ISIS and children brought to the Islamic State by their parents.
The full video was viewed by PJM. Here are some images captured from the 7-minute film.
Boys are subjected to fights in a cage ringed with ISIS flags
A trainee is shown breaking a pile of tiles with his head
The trainer sledgehammers a pile of tiles on a boy’s chest
The trainer walks on the chests of boys stretched out on the ground
The trainer hits boys with a stick as they traverse climbing bars
The trainer breaks a stick across the torso or heads of boys as they’re not supposed to flinch
Boys crawl through an astroturf-lined tunnel while ISIS trainers fire live rounds at their path
Boys are put through an exercise in how to ambush a car
A boy fires at a fellow trainee in the grass
