EXCLUSIVE - 'I was taught how to cut a head off. Where I should aim my knife on the neck': Yazidi boy, 13, relives his chilling experience at ISIS jihad camp for lessons in BEHEADING
- Taha was taken with 200 Yazidi boys aged seven to 15 from his village in Kocho, northern Iraq, to 'jihadi school'
- Made to attend hours of lectures on the extremist's warped version of Islam
- Carried out sickening mock executions at the front the class and held a knife to 'victims' throat
- Boys given dirty meals of rice, beans and soup - but food had worms in
- Pupils told their army which would 'march on Rome' and attack the West
A 13-year-old Yazidi boy has told how ISIS brutes took over his school and turned his class into mini-jihadists – teaching them how to behead non-believers.
Taha Jalo Murad said the terror group tried to indoctrinate him and his classmates into becoming Islamic extremists.
They told the teenagers they would help form an army that would march on Rome and ultimately defeat the US.
The boys were taught Sharia Law, the Koran and were told precisely where to hold the knife on the neck during a beheading.
After instruction they were forced practise on fellow pupils at the front of the class in mock executions.
Terror training: Taha is just 13, but
was among the oldest of the boys who was held at an ISIS jihadi camp,
where the extremists tried to brainwash the boys into their warped way
of thinking
Indoctrination: The boys were made to
attend hours of lessons - something like this one, shown on an ISIS
video - when a man dressed in black would espouse his twisted view of
what the Koran said
Ordeal: Taha said the boys were given
jihad theory training and then a practical lesson where they were forced
to stand at the front of the class and carry out a mock execution
Speaking
exclusively to MailOnline, Taha said: 'They taught us how to cut
peoples heads off - they taught us which arteries of the neck are best
to cut.'
But
the extremists hadn't counted on the boys' strength of mind,
deep-rooted sense of right and wrong - or love for their families.
Taha's ordeal began when ISIS took over his school in Kocho village, in the Sinjar Mountains, northern Iraq.
They ransacked the village and lined up Yazidi men and women in separate lines.
The men were taken to the outskirts of the village, made to lay on the floor and shot.
'I was separated from my father. I do not know if he is alive or dead,' he said.
The women were transported to ISIS-held Mosul and sold off at a people trafficking market to be used as soldiers' sex slaves.
Meanwhile
Taha was moved to a school in the Solag area, while ISIS rounded up all
the Yazidi boys aged between seven and 15. From there they sent them to
special training camp in Tala-Afar.
The
fighters hoped to create their own personal army of mini-jihadis from
the boys whose fathers they had murdered for being non-believers.
But in order to do this they needed to brainwash them into their warped way of thinking.
Sick: The depraved fighters are known to have used children before to carry out their so-called executions
Terrifying: Taha, pictured here in the
camp, would then be given lessons in how to fight - and how to behead
so-called enemies, which included the parents the boys had been forced
to leave behind
Each
day, the boys - who follow the Yazidi religion, a blend of Islam,
Christianity and an ancient Persian faith, which centres around the
worship of a fallen angel - would pray with the extremists for one hour,
five times a day.
In
a mockery of an actual school day, the 200-or-so boys would sit down
for lectures in violent jihad, followed by practical weapons training.
The
lectures could go on for hours in the dirty building: first, one of the
men - seemingly dressed as a cleric, but constantly carrying a pistol -
would espouse their vile and violent interpretation of the Koran.
And
then, a second man would take to the stage and try to enthuse the boys
about 'jihad', fighting for a religion which they didn't believe.
The ultimate aim, the boys were told, was to conquer the so-called 'enemies of Islam'.
'They told us we want to make an army to open Rome…[and] we will control the West and America,' Taha said.
And
all the time, the uniformed boys were reminded of their 'devil
worshipping' past as Yazidi - and the fact their parents were now their
enemy.
Taha
recalled: 'They told us Yazidis are infidels and you don't have to go
back to them…[and] if you find your parents and they have not converted
to Islam, kill them.'
Morals: But the Yazidi boys did not
believe what they were being taught. 'What is the benefit of killing
innocents,' asked Taha. Pictured: Yazisdi flee ISIS in August last year
Young: Taha isn't the only young Yazidi to be taught beheading - this four-year-old was also trained to murder his own mother
These
lectures would be followed by practical lessons in how to fight, and
use pistols, often held on the shooting range, on a field outside the
crumbling school.
'We were terrified, and didn't want to use the weapons - but if we didn't, we would be beaten,' Taha said.
But
there were other, far more disturbing lessons taught to the boys - some
of whom were so young they would barely have left their mothers' sides
before.
The
boys were taught how to behead the 'infidels' in lessons which involved
a student holding a 'blunt knife' while another enacted the role of his
victim.
'They
told us any infidel has to be beheaded,' he said - adding, 'It was so
bad. What is the benefit of killing innocents? It was awful, scary. I
was depressed, I didn't want to do these things. I cried.'
The
boys had little strength to fight against the brainwashing attempts of
their captors: there was only a short break for food each day - but it
wasn't food anyone would be happy eating.
'We were given dirty food – rice and beans [and] sometimes soup, but it had worms in it,' Taha said.
Every moment, the boys were watched by at least two fighters, armed to the teeth.
Free: Taha was lucky, he finally
managed to escape to the safety of Iraqi Kurdistan. But he fears for the
future of the boys he left behind. Pictured: Yazidi women reunited
after being enslaved by ISIS
The
slightest infraction - being late for prayers, failing to hold your gun
right - would result in a beating: Taha, constantly terrified, was
beaten with sticks.
But Taha and his friends still dreamed of escape, and were willing to risk their lives in order to be free once more.
In
April - more than six months after they were first captured - that
chance finally came, when Taha was allowed to visit his uncle's family,
who lived on the outskirts of the city.
Sensing this might be their only opportunity, Taha and three members of his family fled.
'At night we ran away to Zumar into the safety of the Peshmerga,' he said.
Taha
finally found safety in the Rwanga refugee camp in Dohuk, northern
Iraq. His friends in the school have not been so lucky, and he is in
little doubt of what the warped extremists have in store for them - to
be used in the group's twisted fight against the world.
Some boys of Taha's age have been sent on suicide missions with bombs strapped around their waist.
'We did not get enough training, but they said in the future you will fight for jihad,' he added.
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