Islamic
State militants and sympathisers are triumphantly circulating images of a
10-year-old boy they claim has been 'martyred' while fighting alongside
his father in Syria.
Describing
the child as ISIS' youngest jihadist, chilling photographs taken before
his alleged death show him smiling at the camera, wearing military
fatigues and brandishing a huge assault rifle.
ISIS
sympathisers took to social media to identify the 'cub fighter' by his
alleged nom de guerre Abu Ubaidah, adding that both he and his father
were killed during clashes in Syria in recent weeks, but not specifying
exactly where they died or who they had been fighting against.
Sickening: ISIS sympathisers took to
social media to identify the 10-year-old 'cub fighter' by his alleged
nom de guerre Abu Ubaidah. He is said to have died fighting alongside
his father in Syria in recent weeks
Pose: Another picture shows him
smiling sweetly while wearing an ammunition vest as he stands next to a
van that has been converted into an armoured vehicle with a large plank
of wood and bull bars
Misled: Abu Ubaidah posing with a man understood to be his father, who militants named as 'Baghdadi'
Several
images, which have not been independently verified, emerged on social
media this week after a video reporting the deaths of the boy and his
father was uploaded to YouTube in September.
The
original video - distributed by the pro-Isis media group Al-A'amaq - is
understood to have since been removed, but a number of photographs of
the boy have since been widely shared by ISIS militants and their
sympathisers on social media.
One
image shows the boy standing inside a house, grinning as he struggles to
hold an assault rifle so large that it threatens to topple him over.
Another
picture shows him smiling sweetly while wearing an ammunition vest as
he stands next to a van that has been converted into an armoured vehicle
with a large plank of wood and bull bars.
Other
images show him posing with a man understood to be his father, who
militants named as 'Baghdadi'. In those images the boy identified as Abu
Ubaidah is seen calmly holding another large rifle while surrounded by
bearded men wearing military clothing.
Support: ISIS sympathisers are
triumphantly circulating images of a 10-year-old boy they claim has been
'martyred' with while fighting alongside his father in Syria
Smiling:
Describing the child as ISIS' youngest foreign jihadist, chilling
photographs taken before his alleged death show him grinning at the
camera, wearing military fatigues and brandishing a huge assault rifle
Last
week a 24-year-old Muslim convert admitted taking her infant son to
live among Islamic State terrorists in the Syrian city of Raqqa because
she believes he will lead a 'better life' under their brutal regime.
Asiya
Ummi Abdullah denied that children are unhappy living under the
oppressive rule of ISIS' religious fanatics and explained that she felt
her three-year-old son's spiritual well-being was better served in the
group's de facto capital, where public crucifixions and beheadings are
commonplace.
Ummi
Abduallah - who had lived in Turkey since her teens but was born in
Kyrgyzstan - said moving to the militant stronghold in Syria was in part
to shield the young boy from the sex, crime, drugs and alcohol she sees
as rampant in her home town Istanbul.
'Who says children here are unhappy?... He will know God and live under his rules,' she said.
Islamic
State militants have carried out mass executions, set up slave markets
where women are sold for sex for $10 and used child soldiers in what may
amount to systematic war crimes in Iraq that demand prosecution, the UN
reported last week.
Investigators
believe as many as 2,500 women and children have been captured,
subjected to sex attacks and then sold for around $10 by extremist
militants in Iraq.
In
August, ISIS is believed to have taken 450-500 women and girls to the
Tal Afar citadel in Iraq's Nineveh region where '150 unmarried girls and
women, predominantly from the Yazidi and Christian communities, were
reportedly transported to Syria, either to be given to ISIS fighters as a
reward or to be sold as sex slaves'.
According
to investigators, slave markets have been set up in Raqqa, Syria and
the al-Quds area of Maturat in Iraq - partly to attract new Islamic
State fighters.
THE STREET BATTLE FOR KOBANE: DRAMATIC FOOTAGE SHOWS KURDS FIGHTING BACK AGAINST ISIS IN BESIEGED TOWN - BUT THE BLACK FLAG IS STILL FLYING DESPITE AMERICAN AIRSTRIKES
Dramatic
footage has emerged from inside Kobane showing brave Kurdish fighters
battling against militants from the Islamic State.
The
clip, which appears to have been filmed on a mobile phone, shows
resistance forces from the Kurdish People's Protection Unit (YPG) firing
assault rifles and machine guns mounted on the back of a car at
militants hiding behind buildings in the Kobane suburbs.
The
terrorists launched a renewed assault on Kobane last night, killing
dozens of Kurds who have resisted ISIS' advances into the city's suburbs
over the last three weeks.
Defence: ISIS terrorists launched a
renewed assault on Kobane last night, killing dozens of Kurds who have
resisted ISIS' advances into the city's suburbs over the last three
weeks
Prepared: A Kurdish fighter takes up his position to fight the Islamic State jihadists
Islamic
State militants are now in control of one third of the besieged Syrian
city of Kobane despite three days of American airstrikes, a group
monitoring violence in the country said today.
This
morning the chilling sight of the group's black flag could clearly be
seen above buildings inside the city; a brazen display of defiance in
the face of sustained airstrikes by U.S. and Arab warplanes.
While
the airstrikes appear to have slowed the militants advance in some
areas of the city, ISIS fighters appear to be creeping ever closer to
the centre of Kobane, where thousands of civilians unable or unwilling
to flee their homes face rape and massacre.
News
of ISIS' gains came as the Pentagon admitted airstrikes alone will not
be enough to prevent the fall of Kobane, raising serious questions over
the U.S.'s wider campaign against the terror group.
Still flying: This morning the
chilling sight of the group's black flag could clearly be seen above
buildings inside the city; a brazen display of defiance in the face of
sustained airstrikes by U.S. and Arab warplanes
Dramatic: The escalation in Kobane has
seen the U.S. and Arab coalition carry out the most sustained period of
bombing raids since their campaign to destroy the Islamic State in
northern Syria started two weeks ago
Rear
Admiral John Kirby, the Pentagon press secretary, said airstrikes are
'not going to be enough to save that city', amid growing concern that
without Western ground troops being sent into Syria, the defeat of ISIS
will prove a near impossible task.
Heavily
outgunned Kurdish defenders said Islamic State militants had pushed
into two districts of Kobane - a mainly Kurdish border city with 40,000
residents - by late last night.
Washington
said the U.S. military and Arab partner nations responded to ISIS
renewed assault by carrying out eight air strikes last night, adding
that for now the city remains under Kurdish control.
The
Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights this morning said
that despite overnight airstrikes, which have continued into this
morning, Islamic State fighters managed to capture a police station in
the east of Kobane and now control one third of the city.
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