On June 15, 2015, the Islamic State (ISIS) in Syria's Raqqa province released a video titled "The Cubs of the Caliphate."[i] The video, 14 minutes in duration, shows an ISIS camp for children in the Raqqa area, where they undergo military training and ideological indoctrination. Several children who appear in it recite religious texts, while others make threats on behalf of ISIS against the leaders of Muslim and Western countries, including a promise to kill president Obama. Some of the children in the video seem very young (7-8 years old), while the children who are seen undergoing military training seem to be in their teens.
Boy reciting theological text
The video begins with a series of children reciting passages from the Quran and theological tracts. A large portion of the video is devoted to footage of children training – shooting various weapons, carrying out mock raids, undergoing physical training, and so on.
A boy, covered in a ski mask, reads out a threat: "I begin with a message to the apostate rulers of the Arabs and of the non-Arab Muslims. I say to them: by Allah, we will fight you and you will be defeated, just as the Romans[ii] were defeated in the time of Allah's messenger. Allah willing, we will kill the head of unbelief, the dog of the Romans, Obama, who mobilized [forces] against the Islamic State... I say to the Crusader coalition [that is fighting ISIS]: blood for blood, destruction for destruction... If you fight us today in Al-Kheir [Deir Al-Zor] province, in 'Ayn Al-Islam ['Ayn Al-Arab/Kobane], in Baiji or [elsewhere] in Iraq and Syria, [then] we, the cubs of the caliphate, the cubs of tawhid [monotheism] who have been raised according to the path of the Prophet, we who have lived in the shadow of the Islamic caliphate – we will fight the epic battle against you in Dabiq.[iii]
Ski mask clad boy calls on ISIS leader Al-Baghdadi to lead him and his comrades to suicide operations
"My next message is to the youth of the [Muslim] nation. I say to them, where are you in defending the honor of the Muslim women? Where are you in defending the Muslims? Have you not seen how the Nusairi ['Alawite] regime tortures our brothers in prison, kills them and slaughters them? I advise you to join the Islamic State, to mobilize for Allah's sake."
Addressing ISIS leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, the boy says: "Lead us as Allah commanded you, lead us to martyrdom-seeking operations [suicide bombings]. I exhort you, our sheikh, to show no softness towards the enemies of Allah."
Boy issues threat to Obama and anti-ISIS coalition
Towards the end of the video, another boy threatens Obama and the West: "This is a message to the Crusaders, [a message] from the land of Islam to the lands of unbelief. We say to them that, Allah willing, we [fight] them by means of men who love death more than they love this world. Do you imagine that we will back off? Never! We will kick you out by the thousands. We won't leave any of you, and we won't relent. We will turn you into a lesson for others.
"By Allah, Obama and [all of] you who ganged up on the [Islamic] State, we will kill you. Who [will kill you]? The cubs of the caliphate. At the end of times they will rise up [and take part in] the glory of Dabiq, Allah willing."
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Boy undergoing machine gun practice
Children marching at ISIS training camp
[i] Shamikh1.info, June 15, 2015.
[ii] In jihadi parlance this can also mean the Byzantines and/or Christendom in general.
[iii] A place in present-day Syria that is mentioned in hadith literature as the site of apocalyptic battles between the Muslims and the Christians.
