ISIS App Teaches Kids to Blow Up Big Ben, Eiffel Tower, Statue of Liberty in Terror Attacks
The Islamic State terror group has developed a mobile application to indoctrinate young children in Iraq and Syria by allowing them to blow up Western landmarks, including Big Ben, the Eiffel Tower and Statue of Liberty in 9/11 style attacks.
Called Huroof, or alphabet, the app also teaches youngsters to spell out words such as grenade and rocket, according to Col. John Dorrian, the spokesman for the international coalition fighting the Islamic State, which is also known as IS, ISIS, ISIL or Daesh.
The app "is supposed to teach them Arabic. But the words they learn are related to violence and extremism such as tanks and grenades," Dorrian said in a statement, according to Iraqi News. "The children are rewarded if they say they are prepared to carry out attacks on the West, the targets are places like the Statue of Liberty, Big Ben and the Eiffel Tower."
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The "apocalyptic vision" of Islamic State "is of damaging society everywhere they have gained control. What they are trying to do is create a generational problem with their poisonous ideology," he added.
"The reward for learning something in this app is to get points that they can use to select the terrorism target of their choice. Western landmarks that the child can choose and attack using a variety of weapons, including commercial airliners," Dorrian said, according to the Daily Mail.
Dorrian said such efforts to indoctrinate young children need "to be undone once this territory has been taken back."
The U.S.-led coalition recently intensified its fight to help Iraqi and Kurdish forces retake IS strongholds in Mosul, Iraq, and Raqqa, Syria. It released 3,038 weapons in October and 2,709 in November, according to the Air Force Times, which also said that those 5,747 weapons released represent the coalition's busiest two-month stretch against IS in 2016.
IS is using locals as human shields in Mosul, which is delaying the retaking of the city.
IS fighters have indiscriminately attacked civilian areas in eastern Mosul with mortar rounds and explosives, and deliberately shot at fleeing residents, Human Rights Watch said this week.
"If ISIS really cared about the people trapped in its so-called caliphate it would let them flee to safety," said Lama Fakih, the group's deputy Middle East director. "Instead, it is indiscriminately or deliberately killing and wounding people for refusing to be human shields."
