ISIS Claims Video Shows Child Soldier Killing Spies

'Lion cub' seen executing alleged Russian agents
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 14, 2015 12:10 AM CST
ISIS Claims Video Shows Child Soldier Killing Spies
Demonstrators in Mosul, Iraq, carry ISIS flags.   (AP Photo, File)

Fresh horror from ISIS: The militant group's latest video depicts what it says is a child soldier executing two Russian spies. The video shows the men confessing to spying on ISIS for Russian intelligence services before cutting to a scene showing a boy who appears to be around 10 years old apparently shooting them dead as an adult fighter looks on. The boy—described by the adult fighter as a "lion cub of the caliphate"—is believed to be from Kazakhstan and has appeared in earlier ISIS videos, NBC reports.

Some analysts believe a lack of blood suggests the video is a fake, according to the Daily Mail, but whether it was real or staged, ISIS "used a young child in this video for the shock factor, and the shock factor alone," a researcher for the anti-extremism group Quilliam tells the Independent. "Its propagandists have done it before—showing images of children training as soldiers and being kicked in the stomach in martial arts drills—but this latest video marks a departure from past norms." Russian authorities say they do not "comment on the publication of the video executions allegedly of their agents," CBS reports. (More ISIS stories.)

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