Daesh abducts 500 children in Iraq

ANBAR/DIYALA, Iraq

Militant group Daesh has kidnapped about 500 children in Iraq's Anbar and Diyala provinces, local officials said Saturday.

"Daesh has kidnapped at least 400 children in the western province of Anbar, and taken them to their bases in Iraq, and Syria," a member of Anbar’s Provincial Council, Farhan Mohamme told Anadolu Agency.

Mohammed said the abductions from the towns of Ar Rutba, Al-Qaim, Anah and Rawa continued for over a week, and warned that the militant group could recruit all children in regions under their control to use them in terror attacks.

Meanwhile, Diyala's police chief, Lieutenant General Kasim Al-Saidi said about 100 children were recruited in the eastern Iraqi province to be used in suicide attacks. 

"Daesh has recruited about 100 children under the age of 16. They are going to brainwash these kids into being suicide bombers," he said.

Saidi added that the Daesh would give military training to these "recruits," some of whom could be taken to other regions controlled by the group, or even Syria.

Rehab al-Abouda, head of the Iraqi Parliament’s Committee for Women, Family and Childhood said in late April that Daesh used hundreds of kidnapped boys as fighters in its clashes with the Iraqi security forces.