ISIS Executes 6 Boys Using Welding Tools, Tortures 3 Kids for Playing Soccer
Jihadis belonging to the Islamic State terrorist group have found yet another brutal way to execute their victims, this time torturing six boys to death by an using excruciatingly hot welding iron and rods.
According to a local source who spoke with Iraqi News on Tuesday, IS (also known as ISIS or ISIL) sentenced six boys in their Iraqi stronghold of Mosul to public executions after they were accused of being a part of a rival militant faction.
"The terrorist outfit executed six youths in Mosul. ISIS said that the youths belonged to a resistance faction," the unidentified source proclaimed.
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"The youths were first handcuffed and then a welding machine and a welding rod was used to kill them," the source added. "The execution took place in Mosul in front of a large gathering."
The boys' executions come as IS leaders fear losing their largest Iraqi stronghold after Iraqi forces regained control of half of the jihadists' captured territory. U.S. President Obama has vowed that Iraqi forces, aided by a small U.S.-led coalition, will soon begin an offensive to liberate Mosul from IS.
As IS has brutally punished civilians in Mosul for talking about the advances of the Iraqi military, the source who spoke with Iraqi News said that the executions were carried out on the boys "in order to create a state of fear and panic among the people."
According to another local source who spoke with Iraqi News on Tuesday, IS also recently punished three boys because they were caught playing soccer.
The boys were sentenced to publicly receive 30 lashes each.
"ISIS men arrested three young men for playing football, one player wearing a [Lionel] Messi shirt in Martyrs' Park in downtown Mosul," the unnamed source explained. "ISIS militants have lashed every young man with 30 lashes in a public square in front of a crowd of people in central Mosul, as they are playing a game, which is prohibited in Islam."
The source added that IS militants destroyed the one boy's jersey of the Argentinian-born soccer star.
As IS leaders have deemed soccer to be incompatible with Islamic law, this is not the first time that IS has punished children for playing or watching soccer.
Last January, it was reported that IS killed at least 13 teenagers in Mosul who were found watching the Iraq vs. Jordan Asian Cup Australia soccer match. Not only were the teens killed but their dead bodies were left lying in the street for the public to see. Not even their parents were able to pull their dead children's bodies from the street.
Additionally, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reports that an IS court recently announced that it has banned soccer referees from the caliphate, claiming that the referees are focused on enforcing FIFA rules, and "do not judge according to what Allah has revealed."
The Washington Post reports that IS' ban came just before league matches in Syria's IS-held area of Deir ez-Zor kicked off.
"We're lucky because the football we play does not run using FIFA's name," a player told SOHR.
If the league did have FIFA in its name, the player said that he would be afraid that IS "would have stopped games once and for all and not just refereeing."
