Haider al-Abadi:

ISIL recruiting children in 100 countries

Rasa - Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi says the ISIL Takfiri group is recruiting children in 100 countries to commit terrorist acts in the countries where the terrorist group is operating.

News ID: 2754

Date: 17 June 2015 - 01:18

RNA - The Iraqi premier stressed on Monday that the terrorist group “conducts organized recruitment for children in 100 countries," adding, “The exploitation of children for murder is a heinous crime.”

The so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said in March that the ISIL militant group had recruited at least 400 children in conflict-hit Syria in 2015, and exposed them to the Saudi-backed ultra-extremist Wahhabi ideology and military training.

The UK-based group also said that the children, all aged under 18, had been recruited mainly in the eastern Syrian cities of al-Mayadin and al-Bukamal near the border with Iraq.

Last November, an ISIL propaganda video emerged on social media, showing the indoctrination and training of dozens of child soldiers from Kazakhstan.

The Iraqi prime minister called on the United Nations to condemn as “a crime against humanity” the recruitment of children by the terrorist group.

Abadi also said that each month, an average of 40 militants from other countries enter Iraq to carry out bomb attacks.

"The number of foreign fighters in Iraq now exceeds the number of Iraqis" in the ranks of the terrorist group, Abadi said.

"It is up to others... to stop these terrorists from coming to our country, and to stop this machine of killing and destruction and terrorism," the top Iraqi official added, stressing the need for helping Iraq to fight the terrorist group.

The northern and western parts of Iraq have been experiencing horrific violence ever since the ISIL terrorists began their march through the country in June 2014.

The Iraqi army, joined by volunteer fighters, has engaged in various military operations to flush the ISIL terrorists out of the areas they have under control since the outbreak of the crisis fueled by the ISIL militant group.

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