KIDNAP VICTIMS TRAINED AS SUICIDE BOMBERS
AN SAS team killed a terrorist leader and saved 12 children lined up to be suicide bombers.
The kids were due to be sent into battle as part of an Islamic State onslaught against Iraqi forces in Mosul.
But the Brits rescued them after a sniper shot dead the commander and killed at least 30 militants.
The rescue took place three weeks ago as Iraqi troops and British special forces closed in on an Islamic State stronghold near Mosul.
Iraqi civilians who had escaped from the Isis camp told the SAS how dozens of kidnapped children were being forced to act as suicide bombers.
The SAS unit watched the terrorist compound, which housed a bomb making factory, before launching an attack.
A sniper used a .50 Cal Barrett M82 rifle to kill the leader as he briefed two would-be suicide bombers on a mission.
A single shot decapitated him and up to 30 gunmen were then killed during a four-hour battle in which the SAS used grenade launchers and machine guns.
After the terrorists were killed, the SAS searched the compound and found around a dozen children locked inside a stable.
Next door was a bomb factory containing up to 50 suicide vests in children’s sizes. The troops also PATRICK WILLIAMS found heartbreaking videos of youngsters saying goodbye to their parents.
A senior military source told us: “The battle was ferocious and the SAS were heavily outnumbered but they knew the terrorists would kill the children if they withdrew, so they stood their ground. “These are hardened warriors but what they found reduced many to tears.
“It was a suicide bomb factory from which scores of children had been sent to their deaths.
“Once the area had been cleared, the SAS took the children they rescued back to their villages and were treated as heroes.”
A recent report has found that IS carried out at least 923 suicide operations between December 2015 and November 2016. Around 84% were against military targets, the rest were aimed at civilians. Most attacks involved vehicles packed with explosives – sometimes with the addition of a gunner.
Scores of attacks were carried out by children who had been kidnapped and brainwashed.
Our military source warned: “The suicide bomber is now Isis’ most potent weapon.
“But the organisation is running out of volunteers so civilians are being forced to undertake suicide missions.” POLICE are trying to trace the owner of a pair of socks given to a charity shop in Taunton, Somerset, with £1,000 rolled up inside.