TerrorismISIS use of children, youth increasing at an unprecedented rate
The Islamic State is mobilizing children and youth at an increasing and unprecedented rate. The authors of a new report from the Center for Combatting Terrorism present preliminary findings from a new database in which they recorded and analyzed child and youth “martyrs” eulogized by the Islamic State between January 2015 and January 2016. The data suggests that the number of child and youth militants far exceeds current estimates.
The Islamic State is mobilizing children and youth at an increasing and unprecedented rate. The authors of a new report from the Center for Combatting Terrorism present preliminary findings from a new database in which they recorded and analyzed child and youth “martyrs” eulogized by the Islamic State between January 2015 and January 2016. The data suggests that the number of child and youth militants far exceeds current estimates. The study presents data on the children and youth’s country of origin, age, role, location of death, and under what circumstances they were killed. The study also describes several trends in the propaganda before discussing the varied and complex implications of the Islamic State’s long-term vision for its children and youth.
CTS reports that the data unambiguously suggests that ISIS’s mobilization of children and youth for military purposes is accelerating. On a month-by-month basis, the rate of young people dying in suicide operations rose, from six in January 2015 to eleven in January 2016. The rate of operations involving one or more child or youth is likewise increasing; there were three times as many suicide operations involving children and youth in January 2016 as the previous January (2015).
The study says that it seems plausible that, as military pressure against the Islamic State has increased in recent months, such operations — especially those of the inghimasi variety — are becoming more tactically attractive. They represent an effective form of psychological warfare — to project strength, pierce defenses, and strike fear into enemy soldiers’ hearts. “We can expect that, as their implementation increases, so too will the reported rate of child and youth deaths,” the authors note.
The study says that it is equally striking that ISIS’s children and youth operate in ways similar to the adults. Children are fighting alongside, rather than in lieu of, adult males and their respective patterns of involvement closely reflect one another. In other conflicts, the use of child soldiers may represent a strategy of last resort, as a way to “rapidly replace battlefield losses,” or in specialized operations for which adults may be less effective. However, in the context of the Islamic State, children are used in much the same ways as their elders.
