Kidnapped Kurdish school children are being taught to be Jihadists by ISIS

An estimated 148 Kurdish students kidnapped by Islamic militants in northeastern Syria while traveling to their final exams in late May remain in the hands of the extremists, who are subjecting the children to intensive attempts to radicalize them, leaving parents concerned that some of the students will join the radicals.

The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, which has since taken over large swaths of northern and central Iraq, abducted more than 600 children on May 30 as they attempted to travel from Kurdish villages along the Turkish border to the rebel held portions of Aleppo for their final exams. After releasing hundreds of female students and the younger children, the militants kept 150 older boys with the promise they would all be released after a ten-day period of Islamic instruction.

Kurdish self-defense forces and militias associated with the Kurdish Workers Party, known by its Kurdish acronym PKK, regularly battle ISIS along a series of strategic frontlines in the area and both sides have regularly taken prisoners, which, according to the PKK spokesman in Qamishli, could mean that ISIS plans to demand ISIS prisoners held by the Kurds in exchange for the students.

“We are waiting for their demands to determine if there should be a prisoner swap,” said Raydour Khalil in a telephone interview. “The self-defense forces are doing what they can to gain the release of the children.”

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