Despite stinging military defeats and enormous financial strains, Islamic State (IS) is working to imprint a lasting legacy on children through increasing in-classroom training in areas it controls and an aggressive social media campaign. In its self-proclaimed caliphate, IS is schooling thousands of children in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan and other places in radical, anti-Western thought and ways of terror, VOA has found in interviews with activists, local officials and analysts.
With its Caliphate Faltering, Islamic State Rushes to Indoctrinate Children
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A young boy being trained in an Islamic State-run school volunteers for a suicide bombing. Source: Aaamaq IS channel
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IS social media distributed photos in several languages of children holding placards in Islamic State territories offering "congratulations" on the deaths of Americans, apparently in reference to the Orlando mass shooting on June 12, 2016.
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Elementary school children receive training in Raqqa, Syria.
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Young boys receive military training at a camp south of Damascus, Syria.