New York Post

Devil’s spawn

ISIS’s littlest executione­r

- By DANIKA FEARS With PostWire Services dfears@nypost.com

The cold, soulless eyes of a boy no older than 12 focus on his victim’s forehead seconds before he pulls the trigger in ISIS’s latest twisted snuff video.

The child, who doesn’t flinch during the execution, is one of the savage Islamic State’s so- called “young lions of the caliphate.”

He’s a child with a heart of ice. The bloodthirs­ty Islamic State trotted out a prepubesce­nt French boy to gun down a hostage suspected of being an Israeli spy— and a gruesome video released by the group shows the kid carrying out the execution without hesitation.

The middle-school-aged murderer even pumps extra shots into the victim’s body after pumping a bullet into his head.

He is flanked in the 13minute footage by a Frenchman ( far right) who investigat­ors believe is the stepbrothe­r of Mohammed Merah — the man who murdered seven people at a Jewish school in southern France three years ago.

In the profession­allooking video, the older extremist introduces the youngster in the middle of a field, patting him on the shoulder and proclaimin­g, “Here are the young lions of the caliphate.”

“They will kill the one sent by the foolish Mossad to spy on the secrets of the mujahedeen and the Muslims.”

Before them kneels 19yearold Mohamed Musalam, wearing an orange jumpsuit and staring straight ahead.

After the older man spews antiSemiti­c rhetoric, the camouflage­clad boy — without the mask worn by other ISIS killers — stands in front of Musalam, raising a handgun to the teen’s forehead ( above).

He shoots him once in the head, then fires three more bullets into the hostage’s fallen body, triumphant­ly exclaiming, “Allahu Akbar!” ( above, far right) just before getting off the final shot.

The murderous youngster is then shown standing above Musalam’s bloody corpse against the backdrop of a reddish sky.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest called the execution an “abhorrent and unjustifia­ble action,” saying that the Islamic State’s recruitmen­t of children to do its dirty deeds shows the group’s “disregard for all human decency.”

The video begins with Musalam, an Israeli Arab, saying he was recruited by the Israeli intelligen­ce agencyMoss­ad to spy on ISIS.

“They said, ‘ We’ll give you a monthly salary, we’ll give you a house and we’ll take care of any issues you have, as well as your living needs when you return,’ ” he says to the camera, adding that his father and brother encouraged him to go.

It also includes a dramatic reenactmen­t of Musalam later trying to flee and, once he’s caught, confessing to being a spy.

“I say to those who come to spy

on the Islamic State, you won’t succeed at all,” he says.

Moments later, the camera cuts to the little killer dragging Musalam by the collar across a field, where’s he’s ultimately assassinat­ed.

Musalam’s parents, who live in East Jerusalem, insist their son wasn’t a spy at all — just a misguided teenager who had been seduced by the terrorist group’s promises of women, money and cars if he took up arms alongside them.

“They promised a lot of things, and then I came here and there is nothing,” he reportedly told his father, Said Musalam, in a phone call from Syria.

Musalam left for Syria four months ago without telling his family, his dad said.

He tried to leave more than a month ago, but was caught at a Turkish checkpoint and put in an ISIS jail, an unidentifi­ed person told his family over the phone.

“They did not want to let him leave because if he comes back, he might be caught by the Israelis and tell them what he had seen. So they wanted to get rid of him,” the dad said.

“I know my son. I raised him well. I am sure he’s not working for theMossad.”

Mohamed’s devastated mother, Um Ahmad, wept when she heard the news of his death.

“A spy of 19? How is that possible? Why would he have gone there if hewere a spy?” she asked reporters.

About 1,400 people from France have fled their home country to join ISIS militants in Syria and Iraq.

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