ISIL creates children brigade in Syria’s Raqqa

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) forced the children and youth in Al-Raqqa province in Northeastern Syria to join the militant group after undergoing compulsory military training. The ISIL has formed an army of children and youngsters aged 14 to 16 years in Al-Raqqa province after it formed similar armed women groups in the same region, FNA dispatches said. Eyewitnesses told FNA that the main goal for training the children is to influence their way of thinking and change their attitude in order to force them to accept killing of others, including their own family members and relatives. The ISIL is looking for new ways to strengthen its presence. Al-Raqqa residents said the ISIL abducts and recruits the children in order to brainwash them for future war in the region. Earlier this month, the ISIL formed two female brigades for helping them inspect people better in case they try disguising themselves as women. According to reports linked to Syria’s foreign-backed opposition forces, the ISIL set up ‘al-Khansa’ and ‘Um Riyan’ brigades in Syria’s Raqqa, one of the group’s main bases located in North Central part of the country. The new brigades only accept single women aged between 18 to 25 and give them a monthly salary worth 25 thousands SYP (Syrian pound). They are mainly used for inspecting women in Raqqa, where the group has been imposing its own version of law marked with extremist religious beliefs for months now. The al-Sharq al-Awsat quoted an opposition commander named 'Ibrahim Muslem' as saying that, “There have been reports of some anti ISIL activists wearing women clothing such as niqab to pass through security checkpoints”. “Setting up female brigades was the only solution for ISIL to confront this issue, because ISIL could not inspect women, but now it has become possible by forming women brigades,” he was quoted as saying. The ISIL first came into Raqqa on May 15, 2013, and swiftly executed men they said were working for the government. According to locals, at first they seemed a rebel group and a better-organized alternative to the rebels who occupied the city earlier but failed to bring governance or peace for months. A broader agenda slowly emerged afterwards and began to gather pace each week with Al-Qaeda getting more power and more extreme.