For the first time ever, the Islamic State has used an American child to send the U.S. a message.
According to The Daily Beast, the group's latest video -- directed at President Donald Trump -- depicts a Syrian-American boy identified by the name "Yousef" issuing threats to the U.S.
"My message to Trump, the puppet of the Jews: Allah promised us victory, promised you defeat. This battle is not gonna end in Raqqa or Mosul. It’s gonna end in you lands," the boy said in unaccented English while sitting among the ruins of the IS capital of Raqqa, Syria. In the video, he claims he and his family moved from the U.S. to Syria two years ago.
"My father’s an American soldier who fought the mujahideen in Iraq," the boy claims, referencing the Arabic word for people engaged in violent jihad.
That the boy's father was an American soldier, the Beast notes, is significant.
"Six of the 133 Americans arrested on ISIS-related charges have military backgrounds, according to statistics gathered by the George Washington University Program on Extremism," the report notes.
“While this is the first time they have used an American child speaking, it’s significant that he identifies his father as a former U.S. soldier and makes an overt threat to Trump,” Mia Bloom, a Georgia State University professor who researches terrorist organizations told The Daily Beast. “The use of children in this way is intended to show the conflict is multi-generational. That even the kids are radicalized.”
