New video of what is said to be a 4-year-old jihadist firing an AK-47 in Syria has surfaced, alarming international experts and shining light on the frightening war in Syria.
The boy’s father, who stands behind him, can be heard with others exclaiming “Allahu Akbar” as he props the barrel up on a street barricade and pulls the trigger. The gun’s recoil pushes the small boy back, but he continues to shoot at a target in the shocking video.
International experts say the use of child soldiers is a disturbing trend previously seen in the bloody Syrian civil war, but the use of such a young boy is a new depth.
“Syria is unique to any other conflict we’ve worked in over the last 20 years,” Kate Adams, policy and advocacy manager at London-based charity War Child told FoxNews.com. “Children do seem to have been targeted by both sides, more than we might necessarily see in other conflicts. Children are being used almost as pawns of the war and not just as collateral damage.”
Originally, the video carried this title from an al-Qaeda-linked group bent on establishing a terrorist state spanning Iraq and Syria:
“A message from one of the cubs of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.”
And while it’s speculated that the boy, identified as Muhammad, isn’t the only al-Qaeda child soldier, the Assad regime is also accused of using children as human shields.
“I was in the region recently and spoke to two brothers aged 5 and 8,” Adams said. “We asked them, ‘What do you want for your future?’ The five-year-old said he wanted a gun so he can fight for his country, yet the eight-year-old said he wanted a laptop and to go back home. You can see that the very young children are very impressionable to this kind of violence, and the social damage that this is going to cause inter-generationally could be huge and incredibly worrying. People who aren’t close to the issues can see it as de-humanizing and don’t see that child as a child. It forces children out of their childhood through no fault of their own.”
Watch the disheartening video above.
SOURCE: MyFoxDC | VIDEO SOURCE: YouTube
