Islamic State joins others in training children for jihad in Afghanistan
BY BILL ROGGIO AND CALEB WEISS | January 28, 2016
LongWarJournal
Teen-aged jihadists training in an Islamic State Khorasan “province” propaganda video.
The Islamic State’s branch in the Afghanistan-Pakistan region, called Wilayat Khorasan or Khorasan “province, is training children to wage jihad. It is unclear where the children’s training center is located, but it is likely situated in Afghanistan’s eastern province of Nangarhar.
The Islamic State showcased the training of young boys in a video entitled “Cubs of the Caliphate Camp.” The training camp appears to be relatively small compared to others operated by the group in the region. Most of the training shown is weapons related, including how to properly handle and fire different variants of the Kalashnikov assault rifle. The last instructions shown include training in small unit tactics in an open field.
This facility joins at least three other Islamic State training facilities in the region. In October, the jihadist group showcased the “Sheikh Abu Omar al Baghdadi camp” and the “Sheikh Abu Musab al Zarqawi camp”, which are also likely in Nangarhar. The two facilities are named after the former leader of the Islamic State of Iraq and the founder al Qaeda in Iraq (the predecessor of the Islamic State), respectively. These images offer the first official visual evidence of Islamic State training centers in Afghanistan. [For more information, see LWJ report, Islamic State promotes training camps in ‘Khorasan’.)
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