Islamic State militants sell children as slaves: UN

PanARMENIAN.Net - The Islamic State, also known as the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria or ISIS, is subjecting Iraqi children to a series of horrors, including torture, abduction and putting price tags on them for sale as slaves, the United Nations said according to CNN.

In a shocking report released this week, the world body accused ISIS of increasingly using children in its bloody campaign of terror.

"We have had reports of children, especially children that are mentally challenged, who have been used as suicide bombers, most probably without them even understanding what has happened or what they have to expect," said Renate Winter, expert on the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child.

In one video, she said, children as young as 8 are getting training to become soldiers.

"Children of minorities have been captured in places where the so-called ISIL has its strength, have been sold in market with taps, price tags on them, have been sold as slaves," Winter said., according to CNN.

In addition, there have been reports of torture of children, she said, urging Iraq to protect children nationwide.

Last year, the terror group declared that it had established a "caliphate" spanning Iraq and Syria. Since then, it has gone on a murderous rampage that has included beheadings of foreigners. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis have fled areas it has seized.

In one of its most recent attacks, ISIS released a video Tuesday showing a Jordanian captive, pilot Lt. Moath al-Kasasbeh, burned to death. The Middle East nation hit back Thursday, unleashing fighter jets to ISIS strongholds in retaliation.

ISIS captured the 27-year-old after his F-16 fighter jet crashed near Raqqa on Dec 24. Even though the video came out this week, Jordanian authorities say they believe he was killed a month earlier. The video of the pilot's burning seems to support the UN's assertion.

In it, a young boy looks up as if in awe and says he would "burn the pilot" himself if he had a chance. "All Arab tyrants should also be burned," the boy says.

Since the video is carefully orchestrated propaganda, CNN has no way of knowing if the boy was coerced.