Iraq: Beheaded 6 hostages on first day of training, says arrested ISIS militant

Erbil: A militant of the Islamic State group, who is in custody of the Kurdish Peshmerga forces near Mosul, confessed to beheading six Shia hostages on the first day of his training with the extremist outfit.

According to a report in Rudaw – a media group in Kurdistan Region, the 21-year-old ISIS jihadist, identified as Hassan Hamza, was arrested from Nawaran front north of Mosul in October.

The militants of the Islamic State group, also known as ISIS, gave him and five others six-month training "on how to carry out beheadings". The training included watching other jihadists behead hostages and later repeat the same.

“One day when I was in Tal Afar, a special ISIS force came and their emir [leader] chose me alongside a few more saying ‘we are taking you to Raqqa’. As soon as we arrived, they put us in a base outside the city which was surrounded by lots of gardens.” Hamza said.

ISIS jihadists later told them about the importance of such punishments, after which they were asked to behead the hostages.

As part of the training, he was one day asked to behead some of Shia Muslims, held hostage by the extremist outfit, “so I beheaded six of them,” recalled Hamza.

ISIS indoctrinated the young militants to wage jihad against the Peshmerga forces as they fidels, said Hamza, adding, “What ISIS said about the Peshmerga was not true as they treated me in a good way. They are Muslims and they do pray.”