Islamic State Training 8 Year Old Indonesian Kids With AK-47 [Video]

According to reports emerging from Jakarta, The Islamic State has continued to target Indonesians for recruitment into the terrorist front.

A video released recently by the terrorist group showed what appears to be dozens of young Indonesian children who were taught their radical ideology being prepared for the war.

The identities of children were confirmed by Ridlwan Habib, an intelligence and terrorism expert at the University of Indonesia. Not all of the children in the video were Indonesian, but by judging the way they spoke Indonesian with fluency, a majority of them were indeed children from Indonesia, he confirmed.

Indonesian children are the new guinea pigs of Islamic State, as they can be easily brainwashed and the teachings of radical Islam can be planted in their minds with relative ease.

“If you look at the quality of the video, it was definitely made in Syria,” Ridlwan Habib told Tribunnews.

Habib worried that this may pose a serious threat in the future.

“In the full video I counted 23 children, aged 8 to 12 years old. Imagine if in the next 3 years they are grown up and return to Indonesia,” he said.

Habib also added that the immigration office should do a better job.

“To see so many Indonesian children who have managed to get into Syria, this should be a cause for serious reevaluation by the immigration office,” he said.

Ridlwan feared that the children were the innocent victims of their parents who were recruited to the Islamic State, with the parents forcing their kids to join as well. The video makes it clear that they have fully adopted the teachings of the Islamic state and abandoned any allegiance to the Indonesian government and authorities.

The terrorism expert urged the government to pass the long-discussed laws that would allow Indonesia to block the re-entry of any citizens who had gone abroad to fight with the Islamic State. Ridlwan also said the government has an obligation to try to rescue the Indonesian children who have been forced to join the notorious Jihadist group, though he admitted that would require a tremendously difficult plan with a massive research and planning.

Jakarta coconuts reported that the followers of the Islamic State seem to have a thing for using children to attract more soldiers. Last year, a photo posted by one Islamic State follower tried to recruit Indonesians with a photo of a newborn baby between a gun and grenade.

While in January, the Islamic State claimed credit for the terrorist attack that took place in Central Jakarta that killed eight. Even in polls taken before the attacks, less than 0.5 percent of Indonesians supported the Islamic State.

As an update to their largely open recruitment platform, the Islamic State is now reported to be vetting new recruits. The reason for IS to make a change in the rule is reported to be a suspicion of new recruits as possible western agents.

Once the new recruits arrive at IS-controlled territory, they undergo security checks and attend religious and military training. After their training is complete, the source said, the fighters are assigned to military, security, police, welfare, and propaganda positions.

The change of policy comes in the wake of last month’s reported elimination of Abu Nabil al-Anbari, the leader of IS’s affiliate in Libya, in a coalition airstrike, Breitbart reported.

Islamic State is known for being merciless even when it means harming innocent women and children. Recently, The Inquisitr reported that the extremist group was plotting an attack on Jewish kindergartens. In December of last year, it was reported that the group was responsible for killing a mother for breastfeeding her child in public.

[Photo by TAUSEEF MUSTAFA/AFP/Getty Images]