Child soldier: Shocking video surfaces of purported 4-year-old jihadist in Syria

by Paul Alster
Fox News
February 10, 2014

http://www.childrensrightsinstitute.org/321/child-soldier-shocking-video-surfaces

Al Qaeda fighters in Syria may have sunk to a new low with a videothat appears to show a 4-year-old boy squeezing off rounds from an AK-47 as jihadists exhort him on with cries of "Allahu akbar."

The little tyke, whose father stands proudly behind him, is dwarfed by the heavy automatic weapon, and props the barrel up on a street barricade in the stomach-turning clip. The gun's recoil knocks him back, and his father helps him hold it, offering encouragement in Arabic. International experts say the use of child soldiers is a disturbing trend previously seen in the bloody Syrian civil war, but the use of such a young boy is a new depth.