14-year-old volunteered for suicide attack to escape ISIS

Rasa - 14-year-old suicide bomber who removed his bomb vest after handing himself in to guards rather than blowing up a Shia mosque in Baghdad says he volunteered for suicide attack so 'I could leave ISIS'.

News ID: 1912

Date: 28 December 2014 - 16:35

RNA - This is the dramatic moment a Syrian boy escaped from Isis  - by volunteering as a suicide bomber and then handing himself in at the mosque he was meant to blow up.

Usaid Barho had a bomb vest strapped to his body before travelling to a Shi'ite mosque in Baghdad, Iraq where he was supposed to detonate the explosive device.

But rather than killing himself and countless others, he took the brave decision to defy his orders by unzipping his jacket and handing himself in to guards standing nearby.

Video footage shows the tense moment an officer gently removes part of the deadly equipment strapped to his body in front of stunned onlookers.

He had reportedly walked up to the gates of the mosque in the Bayaa district of Baghdad before telling guards he did not want to blow himself up.

The child, who had once loved soccer, Jackie Chan films and wanted to grow up to be a doctor, was captured and indoctrinated by the Islamic State in Syria and forced to convert to Shiite-hating beliefs. According to New York Times, he was told that his mother will be raped by Shiites if he refuse to do what they ask him.

The New York Times quotes him as saying: 'They seduced us to join the caliphate.

'They planted the idea that Shi'ites are infidels and we had to kill them.'

The newspaper describes how he was taken to a training camp before being given a choice of becoming a fighter or a suicide bomber. He chose the latter hoping he could immediately surrender.

The teenager reportedly said: 'I raised my hand to be a suicide bomber.

'If I were a fighter and tried to surrender to security forces they might kill me, with my gun in my hand.'

Usaid was reportedly transferred from one Isis operative to another as he made his journey towards the mosque before he was finally given his target and informed of his target.

It is believed that the teenager is currently being held at an Iraqi intelligence site.

Earlier this month, experts revealed how Islamic State sees children as central to its plans for a caliphate in the Middle East and encouraged fighters to indoctrinate them to a life of violence from an early age.

There was also evidence that young boys were routinely fighting in battles alongside their parents.

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