Ribal Al-Assad appalled at the ongoing use of children in conflict
Monday, 11 August 2014
Photo of boy holding decapitated head is barbaric: Australia PM
REUTERS
The photograph of a young boy holding the decapitated head of a slain Syrian soldier and published in Australian media on Monday underscored the barbarity of Islamist State militants, Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said.
The image was posted on Twitter and showed the boy, believed to be the son of Sydney jihadist Khaled Sharrouf, The Australian newspaper said, adding that the boy was aged 7.
The image was taken in the northern Syrian city of Raqqa and was posted last week on the Twitter account of Sharrouf, Australia's most wanted terrorist who fled to Syria last year and is now an Islamist State fighter.
Abbott said the photograph was "more evidence of just how barbaric this entity is".
The photo was "pretty graphic evidence of the real threat that ISIL represents", said U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, in Sydney ahead of annual Australia-United States Ministerial Consultations (AUSMIN).
It said last month it was putting Islamic State on its list of banned terrorist organizations.
The United States is exploring options to evacuate thousands of Iraqi civilians trapped by Islamic militants on a barren mountain in northern Iraq, after four nights of humanitarian relief airdrops, U.S. officials said on Sunday.
While the airdrops appear to have provided urgently needed aid, the harsh conditions of the Sinjar mountain range in mid-summer have taken scores of lives among Iraq's Yazidi minority, who are threatened by hardline militants from the Islamic State.
Australia, along with France and Britain, has offered assistance to provide aid to the trapped people.
Condemning the news, ODFS Director, Ribal Al-Assad said:
"As I have said repeatedly since the beginning of this conflict, the use of children in conflict is completely and utterly unacceptable, it is abuse of the highest order and much more must be done to confront this crisis.
Extremists are turning children into monsters; they have hijacked their childhood and exploited their innocence.
The International Community can not sit by and watch anymore. They must come quickly together and rid the region of this growing cancer of Islamic extremism before it is too late.
With every day that passes more and more children are indoctrinated into this perverted ideology - they are groomed to commit the most heinous of acts.
Before a whole generation is subjected to this horror the international community must take action.
This recent image exemplifies everything wrong with the Islamist mentality; encouraging a child to commit such an act flies in the face of our common humanity.
We must understand that these Islamists know no bounds, they will continue to encourage children to murder and kill others because of their opposing belief.
We must put a stop to this, these children deserve a life free from the horrors of war."