ISIL released a new propaganda video on Tuesday that appears for the first time to feature an American child who threatens Donald Trump and vows to wage war on U.S. soil.
The ten-year-old boy called Yusuf claims to be the son of a former American soldier and Iraq veteran who moved with his family to Syria two years ago, according to media monitor Memri. The boy’s identity has not been established.
The video shows the boy inside a damaged mosque, having sniper training and railing against the U.S. president. He delivers several messages from points around Raqqa, and acknowledges the attacks on the ISIL stronghold.
"This battle is not going to end in Raqqa or Mosul, it's going to end in your [Trump’s] lands. By the will of Allah, we will have victory, so get ready for the fighting has just begun,” the boy says.
Children have been commonly used in ISIL propaganda and execution videos, which have seen captives murdered in barbaric ways.
The use of children is intended to show that the conflict is multi-generational, Mia Bloom, a professor at Georgia State University who studies terrorist groups, told The Daily Beast.
ISIL child recruits are recruited from the age of nine and are used as spies, executioners and suicide bombers.
