Mother of Jac Holmes, 24, who left IT job in Bournemouth to volunteer with Kurdish fighters in Syria, says he died on Monday.
A British former IT worker who went to Syria to fight against Islamic State has been killed in Raqqa a week after the group’s de facto capital was liberated, his mother has said.
Jac Holmes, 24, from Bournemouth, was one of the longest-serving volunteers with Syria’s Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), having travelled to northern Syria three times since August 2015. He featured regularly in the international media.
It is understood he died on Monday morning in an explosion as the sniper unit he commanded cleared mines to make way for freed civilians to leave the war-ravaged city.
His mother, Angie Blannin, told the Guardian:
“I’m completely heartbroken. I can’t believe he’s gone. I was on the phone to Jac only on Sunday and we talked about how he planned to come home for Christmas now Raqqa is liberated. He wanted to stay to see the end of the caliphate. It was a moment of history and he wanted to be part of it. It feels so ironic he had to die when it was finished.”
Describing the fight against Isis as her son’s “calling”, she added: “He was lost for a while before he went to Syria and didn’t know what he wanted to do with his life. He didn’t feel like he had any purpose. But then he went to Syria and found one. He said:
‘Mum, I love what I’m doing and I’m good at it.’
“It wasn’t my place to stop him. He had to find his own path in life. And death. My job as a mother wasn’t to keep him at home, but to support him and help him in whatever he chose to do. Even though I didn’t want him to go, and we talked about that a lot, you have to let your children grow and be their own person. Anyway, he was very like me: headstrong. He didn’t like being told what to do.”
Holmes’ death comes four days after the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces – of which the YPG is the majority component – declared the “total liberation” of Raqqa, which for more than three years was the de facto capital of Isis.
On Sunday Holmes joined hundreds of anti-Isis fighters at Raqqa central sports stadium to celebrate the victory, later posting on Facebook:
“Walking into the stadium in Raqqa for the first time since the battle ended. We spent weeks seeing this place from hundreds of metres away – it was strange walking the streets and finally going inside.”
Kimberley Taylor, who is believed to be the only British woman fighting Isis in Syria, said she had spent the past eight months on the Raqqa front with Holmes. Describing him as “everyone’s best friend”, she told the Guardian:
“I don’t know what to say, I’m in pieces. I haven’t been able to stop crying since I heard. I want people to know that he wasn’t just a brave warrior but had one of the kindest hearts of anyone I’ve known.”
She said she spent all of last Friday with him after they bumped into each other at the celebration. “I hadn’t seen him in a few weeks and saw him in the crowd. I ran over to him and gave him a hug and we spent the rest of the day together, laughing and talking about everything we’d been through.
A mass murderer or spree killer is a killer who kills several victims in a short period of time
Umpqua Community College shooting
On October 1, 2015, a mass shooting took place at Umpqua Community College, near Roseburg, Oregon, United States.[5] Christopher Harper-Mercer, a 26-year-old student, fatally shot nine people and injured nine others on the campus.[6][7] He killed himself following a gun battle with responding police officers
Christopher Harper-Mercer
Whilst America reels from its latest mass /spree killings and the USA once again debates the rights and wrongs of gun control , here in the UK ( and Europe ) we have a long history of lone gunmen , whom for reasons beyond our comprehension decide to kill multiple people. Below is a profile of three of the most recent and deadly mass/spree killings in the UK.
Ladles and Jellyspoons,
I come before you, to stand behind you,
To tell you something I know nothing about.
Next Thursday, which is Good Friday,
There will be a mothers’ meeting for fathers only.
Admission is free, pay at the door,
Pull up a seat and sit on the floor.
We will be discussing the four corners of the round table.
Ladles and Jellyspoons,
I come before you to stand behind you
to tell you something I know nothing about.
Early in the morning in the middle of the night
two dead boys got up to fight.
Back to back they faced each other,
drew their swords and shot each other.
A deaf policeman heard the noise
and came and shot the two dead boys.
If you don’t believe this lie that’s true,
ask the blind man; he saw it too
Bet some of you remember that from begone days .
Anyways….. Go Daddy have very rudely increased the cost of running and hosting my two main sites which are:
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Now among other great Warriors in the Majestic halls of Valhalla
Iraqi marksman – nicknamed the ‘sheikh of snipers’ – has died in battle after killing at least 320 ISIS thugs
Abu Tahsin al-Salhi, 63, was killed during a firefight with the terror group.
A MARKSMAN who killed at least 320 ISIS fighters has died in battle.
Silver-bearded Abu Tahsin al-Salhi, 63 — dubbed the Sheikh of Snipers and Hawk-Eye — boasted of slaying a minimum of four a day.
He was famed for his fingerless gloves and chequered scarf as he hunted jihadis on his off-road motorbike.
A video this year showed the Iraqi militiaman tracking a jihadi in his rifle scope and killing him. He said: “Today I gunned down two.
“That’s ridiculous. The minimum for me is four. Now I’m at 320.”
Al-Salhi honed his skills in five wars, going back to the 1973 Arab- Israeli conflict. He died as pro-government forces fought ISIS for control of Hawija in northern Iraq.
The veteran lost his life in battle trying to regain control of Iraq’s Hawija town from ISIS thugs.
Abu Tahsin al-Salhi (1953 – 29 September 2017) was an Iraqi veteran sniper. A volunteer in Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces, he claimed to have killed 320 ISIL members during the Iraqi Civil War, receiving the nicknames “the sheikh of snipers” and the “hawk eye”.
According to al-Salhi, in the Yom Kippur War he was part of an Iraqi brigade fighting with Syria against Israel on Golan Heights. In the Iran–Iraq War, the invasion of Kuwait and the 2003 invasion of Iraq al-Salhi fought on Iraqi side. Around May 2015 al-Salhi joined the Popular Mobilization Forces.
According to al-Salhi, he began fighting ISIL in Jurf Al Nasr (formerly Jurf Al Sakhar) and learned sniper skills from the Russian military. He became stationed in the Makhoul Mountains, northern Iraq, armed with a Steyr rifle
According to the Popular Mobilization Forces spokesman, al-Salhi was killed as he advanced on Hawija in Iraq.
For the last two years, the minute hand of the Doomsday Clock stayed set at three minutes before the hour, the closest it had been to midnight since the early 1980s.
In its two most recent annual announcements on the Clock, the Science and Security Board warned:
“The probability of global catastrophe is very high, and the actions needed to reduce the risks of disaster must be taken very soon.”
In 2017, we find the danger to be even greater, the need for action more urgent. It is two and a half minutes to midnight, the Clock is ticking, global danger looms. Wise public officials should act immediately, guiding humanity away from the brink. If they do not, wise citizens must step forward and lead the way.
See the full statement from the Science and Security Board on the 2017 time of the Doomsday Clock.
Doomsday Clock
The Doomsday Clock is a symbol which represents the likelihood of a man-made global catastrophe. Maintained since 1947 by the members of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists‘ Science and Security Board, the Clock represents an analogy for the threat of global nuclear war. Since 2007, it has also reflected climate change and new developments in the life sciences and technology that could inflict irrevocable harm to humanity.
The Clock represents the hypothetical global catastrophe as “midnight” and The Bulletin‘s opinion on how close the world is to a global catastrophe as a number of “minutes” to midnight. Its original setting in 1947 was seven minutes to midnight. It has been set backward and forward 22 times since then, the smallest-ever number of minutes to midnight being two (in 1953) and the largest seventeen (in 1991).
As of January 2017, the Clock is set at two and a half minutes to midnight, due to a
This setting is the Clock’s second-closest approach to midnight since its introduction.
Timeline of the Doomsday Clock
Year
Minutes to midnight
Change (minutes)
Reason
1947
7
—
The initial setting of the Doomsday Clock.
1949
3
−4
The Soviet Union tests its first atomic bomb, the RDS-1, officially starting the nuclear arms race.
1953
2
−1
The United States tests its first thermonuclear device in November 1952 as part of Operation Ivy, before the Soviet Union follows suit in August. This is the Clock’s closest approach to midnight since its inception.
1960
7
+5
In response to a perception of increased scientific cooperation and public understanding of the dangers of nuclear weapons (as well as political actions taken to avoid “massive retaliation“), the United States and Soviet Union cooperate and avoid direct confrontation in regional conflicts such as the 1956 Suez Crisis. Scientists from various countries help establish the International Geophysical Year, a series of coordinated, worldwide scientific observations between nations allied with both the United States and the Soviet Union, and the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs, which allow Soviet and American scientists to interact.
1963
12
+5
The United States and the Soviet Union sign the Partial Test Ban Treaty, limiting atmospheric nuclear testing.
Unforeseeable end to deadlock in American–Soviet talks as the Soviet–Afghan War begins. As a result of the war, the U.S. Senate refuses to ratify the SALT II agreement.
1981
4
−3
The Clock is adjusted in early 1981.[15] The Soviet war in Afghanistan toughens the U.S.‘ nuclear posture. U.S. PresidentJimmy Carterwithdraws the United States from the 1980 Summer Olympic Games in Moscow. The Carter administration considers ways in which the United States could win a nuclear war. Ronald Reaganbecomes President of the United States, scraps further arms reduction talks with the Soviet Union, and argues that the only way to end the Cold War is to win it. Tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union contribute to the danger of the nuclear annihilation.
1984
3
−1
Further escalation of the tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union, with the ongoing Soviet–Afghan War intensifying the Cold War. U.S. Pershing IImedium-range ballistic missile and cruise missiles are deployed in Western Europe.[15] Ronald Reagan pushes to win the Cold War by intensifying the arms race between the superpowers. The Soviet Union and its allies (except Romania) boycott the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, as a response to the U.S-led boycott in 1980.
1988
6
+3
In December 1987, the Clock is moved back three minutes as the United States and the Soviet Union sign the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, to eliminate intermediate-range nuclear missiles, and their relations improve.[16]
Global military spending continues at Cold War levels amid concerns about post-Soviet nuclear proliferation of weapons and brainpower.
1998
9
−5
Both India (Pokhran-II) and Pakistan (Chagai-I) test nuclear weapons in a tit-for-tat show of aggression; the United States and Russia run into difficulties in further reducing stockpiles.
2002
7
−2
Little progress on global nuclear disarmament. United States rejects a series of arms control treaties and announces its intentions to withdraw from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, amid concerns about the possibility of a nuclear terrorist attack due to the amount of weapon-grade nuclear materials that are unsecured and unaccounted for worldwide.
2007
5
−2
North Korea tests a nuclear weapon in October 2006,[17] Iran’s nuclear ambitions, a renewed American emphasis on the military utility of nuclear weapons, the failure to adequately secure nuclear materials, and the continued presence of some 26,000 nuclear weapons in the United States and Russia.[18] After assessing the dangers posed to civilization, climate changewas added to the prospect of nuclear annihilation as the greatest threats to humankind.[19]
2010
6
+1
Worldwide cooperation to reduce nuclear arsenals and limit effect of climate change.[4]New START agreement is ratified by both the United States and Russia, and more negotiations for further reductions in the American and Russian nuclear arsenal are already planned. The 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen results in the developing and industrialized countries agreeing to take responsibility for carbon emissions and to limit global temperature rise to 2 degrees Celsius.
Concerns amid continued lack of global political action to address global climate change, the modernization of nuclear weapons in the United States and Russia, and the problem of nuclear waste.[21]
2017
21⁄2
−1⁄2
Rise of nationalism, United States President Donald Trump‘s comments over nuclear weapons, the threat of a renewed arms race between the U.S. and Russia, and the expressed disbelief in the scientific consensus over climate change by the Trump Administration.[5][22][23][24][25] This is the first use of a fraction in the time, and the Clock’s closest approach to midnight since 1953.
In popular culture
History
Cover of the 1947 Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists issue, featuring the Doomsday Clock at “seven minutes to midnight”.
The Doomsday Clock’s origin can be traced to the international group of researchers called the Chicago Atomic Scientists, who had participated in the Manhattan Project.[6] After the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, they began publishing a mimeographed newsletter and then the magazine, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, which, since its inception, has depicted the Clock on every cover.
The Bulletin’s clock is not a gauge to register the ups and downs of the international power struggle; it is intended to reflect basic changes in the level of continuous danger in which mankind lives in the nuclear age…
In January 2007, designer Michael Bierut, who was on The Bulletin‘s Governing Board, redesigned the Clock to give it a more modern feel. In 2009, The Bulletin ceased its print edition and became one of the first print publications in the U.S. to become entirely digital; the Clock is now found as part of the logo on The Bulletin‘s website. Information about the Doomsday Clock Symposium, a timeline of the Clock’s settings, and multimedia shows about the Clock’s history and culture can also be found on The Bulletin‘s website.
The 5th Doomsday Clock Symposium was held on November 14, 2013, in Washington, D.C.; it was a daylong event that was open to the public and featured panelists discussing various issues on the topic “Communicating Catastrophe”. There was also an evening event at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in conjunction with the Hirshhorn’s current exhibit,
“Damage Control: Art and Destruction Since 1950”.
The panel discussions, held at the American Association for the Advancement of Science, were streamed live from The Bulletin‘s website and can still be viewed there. Reflecting international events dangerous to humankind, the Clock has been adjusted 22 times since its inception in 1947, when it was set to “seven minutes to midnight”.
Changes
“Midnight” has a deeper meaning to it besides the constant threat of war, There are various things taken into consideration when the scientists from The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists decide what Midnight and Global catastrophe really mean a particular year, They might include “Politics, Energy, Weapons, Diplomacy, and Climate science.”
Members of the board judge Midnight by discussing how close they think humanity is to the end of civilization. In 1947, during the Cold War, the Clock was started at seven minutes to midnight. The Clock’s setting is decided without a specified starting time. The Clock is not set and reset in real time as events occur; rather than respond to each and every crisis as it happens, the Science and Security Board meets twice annually to discuss global events in a deliberative manner.
The closest nuclear war threat, the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, reached crisis, climax, and resolution before the Clock could be set to reflect that possible doomsday.
The Time and Today
The lowest point for the Doomsday Clock was 1953, when the clock was set to 2 minutes until midnight after the U.S. and the Soviet Union began testing hydrogen bombs. In the years after, the clock’s time has fluctuated from 17 minutes in 1991 to 3 minutes in 2016.
In January 2017, the clock was set at 2½ minutes to midnight, meaning that the clock’s status today is the second-closest to midnight since the clock’s start in 1947. When discussing the changes, Krauss, one of the scientists from the Bulletin, warned that our political leaders must make decisions based on facts, and those facts
“must be taken into account if the future of humanity is to be preserved.”
In an announcement from the Bulletin about the status of the clock, they went as far to call for action from “wise” public officials and “wise” citizens to make an attempt to steer human life away from catastrophe while we still can.
Doomsday Clock graph, 1947–2017. The lower points on the graph represent a higher probability of technologically or environmentally-induced catastrophe, and the higher points represent a lower probability.
Ulster’s Solemn League and Covenant, commonly known as the Ulster Covenant, was signed by just under half a million Irishmen and women, mainly from Ulster, on and before 28 September 1912, in protest against the Third Home Rule Bill introduced by the British Government in the same year. Sir Edward Carson was the first person to sign the Covenant at Belfast City Hall with a silver pen, followed by Lord Londonderry (the former viceroy of Ireland), representatives of the Protestantchurches, and then by Sir James Craig.
The signatories, 471,414 in all, were all against the establishment of a Home Rule parliament in Dublin. The Ulster Covenant is immortalised in Rudyard Kipling‘s poem “Ulster 1912“.
“Their webs shall not become garments, neither shall they cover themselves with their works: their works are works of inquity and the act of violence is in their hands.”
Isaiah lix. 6.
The dark eleventh hour Draws on and sees us sold To every evil power We fought against of old – Rebellion, rapine, hate, Oppression, wrong and greed Are loosed to rule our fate By England’s art and deed.
The faith in which we stand, The laws we made and guard, Our honour, lives, and land Are given for reward To murder done by night To treason taught by day, To folly, sloth, and spite, And we are thrust away.
The blood our fathers spilt, Our love, our toils, our pains Are counted us for guilt And only bind our chains – Before an Empire’s eyes The traitor claims his price. What need of further lies? We are the sacrifice.
We know the war prepared On every peaceful home We know the hells prepared For such as serve not Rome The terror, threats, and bread In market, hearth, and field – We know, when all is said, We perish if we yield.
Believe we dare not boast, Believe we dare not fear: We stand to pay the cost In all that men hold dear. What answer from the North? One Law, One Land, One Throne! If England drives us forth We shall not fall alone.
On 23 September 1912, the Ulster Unionist Council voted in favour of resolution pledging itself to the Covenant.
The Covenant had two basic parts: the Covenant itself, which was signed by men, and the Declaration, which was signed by women. In total, the Covenant was signed by 237,368 men; the Declaration, by 234,046 women. Both the Covenant and Declaration are held by the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI). An online searchable database is available on the PRONI website.
In January 1913, the Ulster Volunteers aimed to recruit 100,000 men aged from 17 to 65 who had signed the Covenant as a unionist militia.
A British Covenant, similar to the Ulster Covenant in opposition to the Home Rule Bill, received two million signatures in 1914.
The Covenant (for men)
BEING CONVINCED in our consciences that Home Rule would be disastrous to the material well-being of Ulster as well as of the whole of Ireland, subversive of our civil and religious freedom, destructive of our citizenship, and perilous to the unity of the Empire, we, whose names are underwritten, men of Ulster, loyal subjects of His Gracious Majesty King George V., humbly relying on the God whom our fathers in days of stress and trial confidently trusted, do hereby pledge ourselves in solemn Covenant, throughout this our time of threatened calamity, to stand by one another in defending, for ourselves and our children, our cherished position of equal citizenship in the United Kingdom, and in using all means which may be found necessary to defeat the present conspiracy to set up a Home Rule Parliament in Ireland.
And in the event of such a Parliament being forced upon us, we further solemnly and mutually pledge ourselves to refuse to recognise its authority. In sure confidence that God will defend the right, we hereto subscribe our names. And further, we individually declare that we have not already signed this Covenant.
The Declaration (for women)
We, whose names are underwritten, women of Ulster, and loyal subjects of our gracious King, being firmly persuaded that Home Rule would be disastrous to our Country, desire to associate ourselves with the men of Ulster in their uncompromising opposition to the Home Rule Bill now before Parliament, whereby it is proposed to drive Ulster out of her cherished place in the Constitution of the United Kingdom, and to place her under the domination and control of a Parliament in Ireland. Praying that from this calamity God will save Ireland, we here to subscribe our names.
My Great Granny Elizabeth Chambers signature on The Ulster Covenant. She She was born in 1885 & lived on the Shankill , Brookmount Street at the time.
( Lenny Murphy lived there may years later )
She lived to 101 , god bless her tender soul.
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Demographics
The majority of the signatories of the Covenant were from Ulster, although the signing was also attended by several thousand southern unionists, many of whom had travelled to Belfast by rail from Amiens Street station in Dublin.
Acknowledging this, Carson paid tribute to:
“my own fellow citizens from Dublin, from Wicklow, from Clare [and], yes, from Cork, rebel Cork, who are now holding the hand of Ulster”,
to cheers from the crowd.
Robert James Stewart, a Presbyterian from Drum, County Monaghan, and the grandfather of Heather Humphreys, the Minister for the Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht in the Republic of Ireland, was one of 12,000 signatories from Monaghan. One quarter of the population of the county was Protestant before Irish independence.
By county signed in
Dublin: 768
Waterford: 56
Meath: 13
Limerick: 1
Mayo: 1
Louth: 43
Leitrim: 33
Kilkenny: 3
Kildare: 2
Wicklow: 31
Not recorded: 84
Signed-in-blood myth
The signature of Frederick Hugh Crawford was claimed by him to have been written in blood. However, based on the results of a forensic test that he carried out in September 2012 at PRONI, Dr. Alastair Ruffell of The Queen’s University of Belfast has asserted that he is 90% positive that the signature is not blood. Crawford’s signature was injected with a small amount of luminol; this substance reacts with iron in blood’s haemoglobin to produce a blue-white glow.
The test is very sensitive and can detect tiny traces even in old samples. Crawford’s signature is still a rich red colour today which would be unlikely if it had been blood. Nevertheless, some unionists are not convinced by the evidence.
The Ulster Covenant was used as a template for the “Natal Covenant”, signed in 1955 by 33,000 British-descended Natalians against the nationalistSouth African government’s intention of declaring the Union a republic. It was signed in Durban‘s City Hall – itself loosely based on Belfast’s, so that the Ulster scene was almost exactly reproduced.
Durban City Hall
Belfast City Hall
Being convinced in our consciences that a republic would be disastrous to the material well-being of Natal as well as of the whole of South Africa, subversive of our freedom and destructive of our citizenship, we, whose names are underwritten, men and women of Natal, loyal subjects of Her Gracious Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Second, do hereby pledge ourselves in solemn covenant, throughout this our time of threatened calamity, to stand by one another in defending the Crown, and in using all means which may be found possible and necessary to defeat the present intention to set up a republic in South Africa. And in the event of a republic being forced upon us, we further solemnly and mutually pledge ourselves to refuse to recognise its authority. In sure confidence that God will defend the right, we hereto subscribe our names.
GOD SAVE THE QUEEN.
Click here to search the Covenant
This is simply the story of a boy trying to grow up, survive, thrive, have fun & discover himself against a backdrop of events that might best be described as ‘explosive’, captivating & shocking the world for thirty long years.
Brainwashed ‘cubs of the caliphate’ shoot prisoners in the back of the head in sickening new ISIS execution video
Shocking video shows young boys carrying out brutal executions in Afghanistan
So-called ‘cubs of the caliphate’ rant at the camera before murdering two ‘spies’
A separate scene shows four adult jihadists shooting three more prisoners
Brainwashed children brandishing handguns shoot prisoners in the back of the head in a brutal new ISIS execution video.
The two boys, both dressed in black, force their captives to kneel in front of them in front of the doorway of a building in Afghanistan.
Footage shows them aggressively pulling back the heads of the two terrified ‘spies’ before the younger of the two jihadists starts ranting at the camera. They then point their handguns at their prisoners and carry out the killings.
The children are so-called ‘cubs of the caliphate’ – the name given to youngsters who have been brainwashed with ISIS ideologies and trained to fight and kill for the terror group.
ISIS has released several videos, including one earlier this year, showing young children carrying out brutal executions of adults, training with weapons, and pledging allegiance to ISIS.
Last month it emerged that the head of ISIS in Afghanistan was killed in a raid carried out by Afghan and US special forces, the country’s president said.
Abdul Hasib died during an attack by 50 US special forces and 40 Afghan commandos overnight on April 27, President Ashraf Ghani said.
How the Islamic State Attracts,
Coerces and Indoctrinates Children to its Cause
Since its declaration of a Caliphate in 2014, the Islamic State (IS) has released a number of publications depicting children participating in rallies, undergoing training, undertaking combat operations and even executing prisoners. Armed groups exploiting children in war zones is nothing new and across Iraq and Syria, many factions have been accused of employing children as spies and messengers to actual soldiers.
However, the scale and sophistication employed by the IS in attracting, coercing, training and indoctrinating children into its cause is particularly noteworthy. Referred to as the “Cubs of the Caliphate” (ashbal alkhalifa), these children are not just a present-day threat on the battlefield, but a potential threat for the future, as the question of what happens to them once the Islamic State is defeated remains.
For armed groups and insurgencies, using children in their operations have
a number of pragmatic benefits: Children often appear less suspicious to security
forces, are easier to indoctrinate and often difficult to fight against for a number
of practical and political reasons.
The IS is certainly aware of these benefits when it includes children in its operations. However, the IS’ motivations for recruiting children extend beyond simple pragmatism. By training children in not only warfare but also ideology, the IS seems to be working towards consolidating its state-building project and making sure that even if its organisation comes to an end, its ideology will persist.
Moreover, although the IS has attracted a number of foreign fighters into its fold, it has consistently failed to attract the loyalty of major jihadist organisations or worldwide grassroots support. The fact that the IS seems to not just train children as soldiers but raise them as a new generation of citizens loyal to its cause supports the notion that it has “given up” on gaining the support of the adult population in the areas it inhabits.
.
The purpose of this report is therefore to analyse how the IS recruits children into its cause, whether through forceful means like kidnap and coercion or through means based on enticement to encourage children to join voluntarily. It then looks into the training camps and schools operated by the IS to see how the children are gradually de-sensitised to violence trained in combat and ideology.
How the Islamic State Recruits Children
The IS uses a wide variety of tools to recruit children into its cause, both voluntarily and involuntarily. More often than not, these tools are part of the IS’ wider state-building apparatus and are deployed alongside other projects aimed at the general population in areas it has under its influence. This report has identified four primary sources of underage recruitment for the IS:
• Public Events, Projects and Services
• Enticement and Gifts
• Kidnapping and Forced Recruitment
• Children of Islamic State Supporters
• Public Events, Projects and Services
As a result of the Syrian Civil War and the US occupation of Iraq and the subsequent insurgency, many areas across Syria and Iraq have suffered from endemic insecurity, scarcity and unavailability of public services. Under these circumstances, one of the Islamic State’s greatest sources of legitimacy in the areas it controls has been the restoration of security and services in the areas it controls.
The IS is well aware of the propaganda value of such efforts and in the areas it has limited control over or has not consolidated yet, it tends to engage in a “charm offensive” designed towards familiarising the locals with the positive side of the IS. Referred to as Da’wa (“the call”), these events cost the IS little but can build up tremendous grassroots support. Da’wa sessions involve distribution of food and drink, informing the locals about “matters of their religion”, and informing the locals of its policies in a manner that will avoid backlash.
Although aimed at the population as a whole, these events have a specific youth focus due to the IS’ aforementioned long-term planning and its seeming distrust towards
adults. Observers report that in Aleppo, the Da’wa sessions aimed at youth involved competitions and contests with prizes for winners, Qur’an reading sessions, video viewing parties to regale them with “epic battles” and members of the organisation handing pamphlets to children.
.
The education sector has been one of the hardest-hit sectors in Syria since the beginning of the civil war, with many schools either damaged by fighting or being used to house refugees. Syria’s pre-war literacy rate of %90 has plummeted and it is estimated that 2.8 million Syrian children are out of school10. The education vacuum has proven ideal recruitment tool for many of the armed groups in Syria, including the IS. The IS has provided shelter and education for many out-ofschool children in the region, grooming them for recruitment in the process.
In areas it has tighter control, the IS has also re-opened schools, instituting a
curriculum that emphasizes religious education and pro-IS ideology12. Although
most Islamic State school activity falls under training and indoctrination (and
will therefore be analysed in the relevant chapter), in a region where there are
few-to-none alternatives for education left, they are also a major source of initial
exposure and recruitment for the organisation.
Enticement and Gifts
The on-going conflicts across Syria and Iraq have not only led to a collapse of security and public services, but also a drastic reduction of incomes and opportunities, forcing many Iraqis and Syrians below poverty line. Just as the case in social services and security, the IS has used its ability to provide jobs and income to bolster its legitimacy, offering incomes, bribes and gifts to those it wants to recruit. Children and youth are no exception. As mentioned above, Da’wa sessions often feature gifts and competitions with rewards for winners attached to them.
However, beyond rewards for winners, members of the IS have been known to offer small gifts (such as toys and sweets) to all children who participate in meet-and-greet events. Children have also been given simple but inclusive tasks (such as waving a flag for a photo) that bolster the sense of belonging among potential recruits.
The IS has employed similar tactics towards older children and teenagers, although appealing to other forms of enticement. Observers in Iraq have noted that especially across Anbar, the organisation have regaled potential recruits with promises of power, status, prestige and revenge against the Shia. Recruiters of the Islamic State had access to luxury goods (such as high-end cars) that would be beyond the reach of an ordinary citizen, tying together notions of prosperity and the Islamic State. Beyond gifts and token rewards, the Islamic State has found cash to be just as viable a recruiting tool.
At the height of its power, the organisation was earning significant funds through the oil trade, taxation, smuggling and looting. This has allowed it to offer its fighters much higher salaries than those of other armed groups or even members of the Syrian or Iraqi militaries. In a region wracked with poverty and lack of prospects, the notion of a steady income alone has driven potential recruits, young and old, to sign up with the organisation.
Reports from the Human Rights Watch indicate that recruits signing up with the
Islamic State are given a Kalashnikov, ammunition, uniform and tied to $100.
Christopher Harper-Mercer 
belfastchildis.com 