Islamic State proclaims it will use child soldiers to retake Spain and Portugal: executes Nigerian soldiers for training purposes

From Euro Weekly (largest English language newspaper in Spain) and Associated Press via ABC.  Photograph from the twitter account of Hum Angle of Africa

In a video published earlier this week by Islamic State, titled “The generation of empowerment”, the terror organisation has proclaimed its commitment to using child soldiers to participate in its terrorist actions.

The video was released by ISWAP, its following in West Africa, and among other things, the terror group insisted that it will reclaim Al Andalus, the old Muslim name for what is now Portugal and Spain. It showed children and adolescents, between 12 and 18 years old, being trained to perpetrate terrorist actions.

Daesh described the children and adolescents as the “unique generation, the generation of empowerment”, entrusting them to “persecute the countries of the cross, and the governments of apostasy”, while assuring that they constitute a “time bomb”. IS believes that as they are minors and adolescents, they may have an easier time going unnoticed among the groups of immigrants who regularly arrive in Spain through different routes.

The video claims that it is “good for the leaders of the Islamic state to make long-term plans to prepare this generation for wars, so they launched the ‘puppy institutes of offence’, and produced a generation that was not contaminated”.

One of the kids states that, “we are here at the Caliphate Cub Institute, receiving spiritual and physical training. We study religious sciences, Arabic, and the biography of the Prophet. We receive physical training, we learn to arm, disarm, and use weapons. We will put into practice what we have learned, by the will of Allah, to give strength to the blessed caliphate”.

These future terrorists are seen taking theory classes, and watching ISIS movies. One of them comments that “we wake up early, have breakfast, go to the training camp, before going to religion classes. We have lunch at 12, followed by prayer. We continue training in the evening, until it is time for the sunset prayer, we eat dinner, and go to bed”.

A child is shown swearing an oath to the effect that they are going to free their prisoners, the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the Two Holy Mosques, and conquer Rome and Al-Andalus, all through jihad”. One of the instructors announce, “we tell the Crusaders that this new generation was raised to have a passion for martyrdom, and to kill for the sake of Allah”.

And just in case you hoped that they are only the local equivalent of the ATC cadets. 

As final proof that the training is real, several of the children are shown cold-bloodedly murdering several prisoners, including Nigerian soldiers.

ABUJA, Nigeria — An Islamic State-linked extremist group accused of killing hundreds in northeast Nigeria has released a video purporting to show child soldiers executing two men identified as members of the Nigerian military.

It showed a man in Nigerian army uniform who said he was with the army special forces being shot twice in the head by a boy of about 12. Shortly after, another soldier who said he was captured in April 2021 was shot in the head by one of the three masked fighters behind him.

A Nigerian military spokesperson did not immediately respond Thursday to a request for comment on the video, which security analysts told The Associated Press appears to have been shot near the Lake Chad basin, the stronghold of the extremist group.

The video, said Rita Katz, executive director of SITE Intelligence Group, “demonstrates the immense focus ISIS is placing on Africa” and puts a “spotlight on Nigeria as one of its strongholds and projecting itself as an adaptive, enduring force to the world.”

The 27-minute video also shows child fighters training in open fields and classrooms. In one scene, masked fighters who looked as young as 10 are seen in a classroom as an older scholar takes them through the Islamic State’s teachings and doctrines. In another scene, the fighters are seen training with rifles.

The development is yet another sign that the IS-linked group remains a threat in the northeastern part of Africa’s most populous country