CAIRO: A young British boy was last night allegedly pictured executing "spies" in a newly released Isil propaganda video.
The film released yesterday (Friday) shows five boys apparently aged as young as six or seven year shooting dead kneeling captives.
Captions on the online film identify one of the young pistol-wielding executioners, who are all wearing identical military-style uniform, as a Briton called Abu Abdullah al-Britani.
The other executioners, who are all of similar ages, are Egyptian, Kurdish, Tunisian and Uzbek according to captions of the video shot in Syria's Raqqa province.
Last night the identity of the allegedly British child executioner remained unclear. The same name was previously used by another British jihadist, Assad Uzzaman from Portsmouth, who was killed in Syria in July 2015.
Research earlier this year estimated that up to 50 British children are being brought up in the self-styled caliphate of Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil), after being taken to the region by their parents. Boys face indoctrination with a rigid Isil curriculum and jihadist training that includes shooting practice and martial arts.
At least 12 child killers have appeared in Isil propaganda videos. One British boy, Isa Dare, the young son of jihadi bride Grace "Khadijah" Dare from south-east London, appeared in a video in January saying that jihadists will "kill the kuffar" (unbelievers).
Sally Jones, a mother of two from Chatham, Kent, who travelled to Syria and married a British jihadist, reportedly took her 10-year-old son with her.
The nine-minute video shows the shooting of prisoners identified as "atheist Kurds".
One child, Abu al-Bara'a al-Tunisi, then says "To the atheist Kurds, what is between me and you are days during which the hair of young children turns grey. The war with you has yet to begin. Neither America, France, Britain, nor Germany will benefit you," according to Site Intelligence Group, which monitors jihadi propaganda.
Elsewhere, the video shows old men killing Syrian soldiers and other fighters beheading four men from rival rebel factions.
Meanwhile, a radicalised student was yesterday sentenced to seven years in prison for helping a friend go to Syria to fight while studying for his A-levels.
Abdullahi Ahmed Jama Farah, now 20, created a "hub of communication" for his "Mandem" group of like-minded extremists from his mother's home in Manchester in 2013.
An Old Bailey trial found Jama Farah, who is Danish and of Somali origin, guilty of preparing for terrorist acts by attempting to facilitate Nur Hassan, 19, from Manchester, to travel to Syria.
Judge Michael Topolski told him the extent of his radicalisation was "considerable", saying: "Your support for jihad was global and offensive in nature and not defensive and limited to Syria.
"I am satisfied that what motivated you to assist was the very same set of extremist beliefs that motivated your friends to travel and train and fight and, if necessary, to die."
Jama Farah was in communication with four other friends abroad, two of whom are believed to have been killed and another badly injured in fighting.