Isis: Child soldiers 'brainwashed' by Daesh to murder their parents

Militant groups around the world turn to recruiting children to fight their wars, more often tapping into their fear or desire to be treated like adults. The Islamic State (Isis) has also used the same approach to expand their armed forces.

Daesh militants have been found kidnapping, buying and enslaving young boys into fighting their war. One such child soldier who managed to escape a jihadist cub camp revealed that his commanders told him to kill his parents.

Twelve-year old Nasir told CNN how he, along with 59 other young boys, some as old as five, were trained to become suicide bombers at the terrorist group's Al Farouq Institute in Raqqa, Syria.

"The scariest times for us all were when the air strikes happened. They'd lead all of us underground into the tunnels to hide. They told us the Americans, the unbelievers, were trying to kill us but they, the fighters, they loved us. They would look after us better than our parents," Nasir said.

"When they were training us they would tell us our parents were unbelievers and that our first job was to go back to kill them," he added.

According to his statement, the Daesh commanders were trying to brainwash the children into believing that the Isis cared more for them than their parents did and that it was imperative that they murder them.

Children who refused to be conscripted as child soldiers were beaten into submission or killed. Nasir was lucky enough to escape the training centre and fled to a refugee camp following which he was reunited with his mother.

Kurdish authorities have reported the abduction of nearly 600 children by the Isis from Sinjar and surrounding Yazidi villages in northern Iraq.