Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) jihadists have reportedly executed a seven-year-old boy in the terrorist group’s de-facto capital of Raqqa in Syria for swearing while playing soccer with friends.
Local independent media outlet ARA News learned from a human rights activist, identified only as “S.Y.,” that ISIS killed the child on May 5 in Raqqa’s Naeem Square on charges of “insulting divinity.”
The boy, identified as Muaz Hassan, was arrested by the ISIS religious police, known as Hisbah, “after they heard him ‘cursing divinity’, while playing in the street with his friends,” said an ISIS member of the Sharia court in Raqqa, according to the activist.
Regardless of his age, Hassan was reportedly convicted by the ISIS Sharia court of “blasphemy” and insulting the caliphate.
Eyewitnesses told ARA News that Hassan was executed “in front of hundreds of people, including the child’s parents, who collapsed after the execution of their child.”
Citing local sources, the Syrian news outlet notes that ISIS had executed two young men days earlier in Syria’s northern Aleppo province. The victims were reportedly accused by the jihadist group of spying on behalf of the anti-ISIS U.S.-led coalition.
“Over the past two years, ISIS has publicly executed hundreds of civilians, activists, and journalists on various charges in areas under its control across Syria and Iraq,” reports ARA News. “However, it is the first time the extremist group executes a child in a blatant violation for Islamic law itself, according to observers.”
ISIS has been accused of killing other children.
In early January, ISIS was accused of detonating a bomb in Iraq that was strapped to a four-year-old boy.
Moreover, the jihadist group reportedly beheaded a 16-year-old boy in Syria in early March for not attending mandatory prayer services.
In June 2015, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), which uses a network of ground sources to monitor the conflict in Syria, reported that ISIS crucified two boys for “not fasting” in observance of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
ISIS, which seized large swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria in 2014, has become notorious for its brutality, including beheadings, rape, crucifixions, and abductions.
The jihadist group has imposed sharia, or strict Islamic law, in the areas it has conquered.
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