A reed-thin boy sits meekly in a blue molded plastic chair in a darkened office, flickers of light from a camera casting shadows around a young face mottled by adolescent acne.
(FOX)- His anxious dark brown eyes dart relentlessly from side to side, betraying confusion and fear.
His name is Awad Arkan Helal Mohammed, and, at just 14, he is a captured ISIS operative now in the custody of Kurdish authorities. He is one of thousands of child soldiers recruited into the brutal Islamist terrorist army’s service.
“The Caliphate Abu Bakar Al-Baghdadi, to listen and obey in times of hardship and ease, in difficulty and prosperity,” he shouts into the camera with mustered defiance. “I am not to dispute his orders, only when I see evident infidelity regarding which is there is a proof from Allah. Allah is my witness.”
FoxNews.com was present earlier this week as the camera rolled, collecting evidence for his future trial. After his cursory interrogation, Awad told FoxNews.com how he joined ISIS, a process that began with a simple pledge of allegiance recited on April 16, 2015, after he was recruited by a friend, Mahmood Ibrahim Shukoor, in his local Kirkuk village of Smata Olya. The decision made him a chip off the block.
The interrogation and subsequent exclusive interview took place inside the barricaded and nondescript confines of the Kirkuk Police Department. Encircled by a thick cement wall and layers of security, the unmarked building in the city center is guarded by snipers atop the roof and 24-7 patrols on the ground. Inside, uniformed men puff on cigarettes as they roam the shabby hallways, their rifles slung tight.
Awad recounted the events that followed his pledge to the self-styled ISIS caliph when he was 13. He was whisked away to the nearby village Albo Najim for 37 days of intense weapons training, he said. The focus was on using AK-47s, M16 rifles and the Soviet-style machine gun BKC, otherwise known as PKM outside Iraq. There were two ISIS trainers and 30 trainees — half of them minors.
(Photo Credit: Daily Mail)