A future generation of merciless, conscience-less, and highly skilled terrorists—that's what the Islamic State (ISIS) appears to have in mind as it continues to find ways to train children in the horrible ways of terror.
The Islamist militant group recently developed a mobile application to indoctrinate young children in Iraq and Syria by encouraging them blow up such Western landmark targets as the Big Ben in London, the Eiffel Tower in Paris and Statue of Liberty in New York City in 9/11-style terror attacks with just a few touches on their smartphones, Iraqi News reported.
Called Huroof, or alphabet, the app also teaches kids to spell out words. But this is not the typical "A is for apple," "B is for ball" kind of spelling. Instead, the children are taught to spell words in Arabic like "grenade" and "rocket," according to Col. John Dorrian, the spokesman for the international coalition fighting the ISIS.
"The children are rewarded if they say they are prepared to carry out attacks on the West, the targets are places like the Statue of Liberty, Big Ben and the Eiffel Tower," Dorrian said.
He explained this kind of thinking springs from the ISIS' "apocalyptic vision ... of damaging society everywhere they have gained control," adding that, "what they are trying to do is create a generational problem with their poisonous ideology."
"The reward for learning something in this app is to get points that they can use to select the terrorism target of their choice. Western landmarks that the child can choose and attack using a variety of weapons, including commercial airliners," Dorrian said, according to The Daily Mail.
Aside from teaching kids how to become armchair terrorists, ISIS is also encouraging them to undertake suicide missions.
Rebel media sources recently posted a video of an ISIS female fighter convincing her two young daughters to carry out suicide attacks against Syrian forces, Iraqi News reported.
The footage shows a woman in burqa holding her two young daughters while a man asks her, "Why you are sending your daughters? One is seven and the other is eight, they're young for jihad." She answers, "No one is too young for jihad, because now jihad is a duty for every Muslim."
Another footage shows a male militant, possibly the girls' father, lecturing the two girls on how to carry out suicide bomb attacks and persuading them to become martyrs.
On Friday, a young girl walked into a Damascus police station and asked for the toilet. The police didn't immediate notice that she was wearing an explosive vest. The bomb exploded, either by self-detonation or by remote control, killing her and injuring three officers.
