By Kim Sengupta, The Independent:
ISIS is providing young boys and girls in the territory it controls with apps to access violent jihadi websites, as it makes increasing use of child fighters in a battle for survival in Iraq and Syria.
The attempt to “create a new generation of terrorists”, say military and security officials, comes amid evidence of a new drive to recruit among the young in the West to carry out attacks in Europe and America as well as make the journey to the Middle East to join the fighting.
There has been a sharp rise in the numbers of children on the frontline – up to 50,000 according to some estimates – in the wake of the heavy losses ISIS has suffered while desperately defending Mosul, its last stronghold in Iraq, and Raqqa, the capital of its “caliphate” in Syria.
Around 300 young fighters have been killed, many in suicide attacks, and others too are likely to die as the campaign continues. ISIS is, however, believed to have more than 1,500 in its “Cubs of the Caliphate” section, and security officials warn of a serious problem over what to do with indoctrinated boys and girls, psychologically damaged by what they have experienced, once the conflict is finally over.
The internet is the common avenue for indoctrination in both the West and the Middle-East for the young, say security sources. The British Government has disclosed that 50 young people were prevented from leaving the UK to go to Syria in the last 12 months – more than doubling last year’s figure of 23…
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