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Photos: Islamic State fighters’ children in Iraq’s orphanages

Thousands of children of Islamic State group members, many of them abandoned, are the innocent victims of the brutal rise and destructive fall of Daesh. Most children of Iraqi IS members live mingled among the hundreds of thousands still languishing in camps for those displaced by the three years of fighting. More than 1,000 live with incarcerated mothers in overcrowded jails or juvenile detention facilities. A few dozen are in orphanages. One, in Baghdad, houses the children of foreign jihadis who came from abroad to join the IS and are now dead or imprisoned.

Updated on: Oct 21, 2018 2:53 PM IST

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A worker comforts a toddler at Salhiya Orphanage in Baghdad, Iraq. In Iraqi orphanages, one finds all the ways that war wreaks its destruction, embodied in the most innocent of faces: Children of those killed, children born of rape, children abandoned in the chaos of battle. There are also the children of the enemy. (Maya Alleruzzo / AP)

Updated on Oct 21, 2018 2:53 PM

A worker comforts a toddler at Salhiya Orphanage in Baghdad, Iraq. In Iraqi orphanages, one finds all the ways that war wreaks its destruction, embodied in the most innocent of faces: Children of those killed, children born of rape, children abandoned in the chaos of battle. There are also the children of the enemy. (Maya Alleruzzo / AP)

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A boy plays in the hallway at the orphanage. Salhiya is Iraq’s state-run facility in Baghdad, and is now home to children of foreign jihadis who came to join the Islamic State group and are now either dead or incarcerated. (Maya Alleruzzo / AP)

Updated on Oct 21, 2018 2:53 PM

A boy plays in the hallway at the orphanage. Salhiya is Iraq’s state-run facility in Baghdad, and is now home to children of foreign jihadis who came to join the Islamic State group and are now either dead or incarcerated. (Maya Alleruzzo / AP)

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During a recent visit by The Associated Press, more than a dozen cribs were arranged end-to-end in a room set for babies. Toddlers able to stand rocked side to side, holding the sides of the cribs. There were plenty of cuddles by staff, who left no baby to cry. (Maya Alleruzzo / AP)

Updated on Oct 21, 2018 2:53 PM

During a recent visit by The Associated Press, more than a dozen cribs were arranged end-to-end in a room set for babies. Toddlers able to stand rocked side to side, holding the sides of the cribs. There were plenty of cuddles by staff, who left no baby to cry. (Maya Alleruzzo / AP)

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The facility houses a mix of infants born to Iraqi women enslaved by militants and older children brought to Iraq; some were simply abandoned. A newborn given the name Helen by the caretakers was left by her mother at a hospital after her birth. (Maya Alleruzzo / AP)

Updated on Oct 21, 2018 2:53 PM

The facility houses a mix of infants born to Iraqi women enslaved by militants and older children brought to Iraq; some were simply abandoned. A newborn given the name Helen by the caretakers was left by her mother at a hospital after her birth. (Maya Alleruzzo / AP)

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Two girls act out an episode from a Tom & Jerry cartoon at the state-run al-Zuhour Orphanage in Mosul. Nearly 60 Iraqi children are kept in two orphanages in Mosul, which was captured by IS in 2014 and liberated by US-backed security forces last year after a nearly year-long battle. Many of them are the children of Iraqi members of the militant group. (Maya Alleruzzo / AP)

Updated on Oct 21, 2018 2:53 PM

Two girls act out an episode from a Tom & Jerry cartoon at the state-run al-Zuhour Orphanage in Mosul. Nearly 60 Iraqi children are kept in two orphanages in Mosul, which was captured by IS in 2014 and liberated by US-backed security forces last year after a nearly year-long battle. Many of them are the children of Iraqi members of the militant group. (Maya Alleruzzo / AP)

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Children gather around Sukaina Mohammed Ali, a top official of the local Mosul government, at an orphanage in Mosul, Iraq. The older of the two orphanages was founded in 2017 by Ali, who says she begged and prayed for donations to feed and clothe the children before government funds were made available. (Maya Alleruzzo / AP)

Updated on Oct 21, 2018 2:53 PM

Children gather around Sukaina Mohammed Ali, a top official of the local Mosul government, at an orphanage in Mosul, Iraq. The older of the two orphanages was founded in 2017 by Ali, who says she begged and prayed for donations to feed and clothe the children before government funds were made available. (Maya Alleruzzo / AP)

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A girl wanders through a hallway at the state-run al-Zuhour orphanage, in Mosul. Abeer al-Chalabi, a senior government official in Baghdad who oversees orphanages, said some of the foreign children came to the facilities with the radical ideas instilled by the parents. (Maya Alleruzzo / AP)

Updated on Oct 21, 2018 2:53 PM

A girl wanders through a hallway at the state-run al-Zuhour orphanage, in Mosul. Abeer al-Chalabi, a senior government official in Baghdad who oversees orphanages, said some of the foreign children came to the facilities with the radical ideas instilled by the parents. (Maya Alleruzzo / AP)

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Shoes are stacked on shelves at the Salhiya Orphanage. One 5-year-old boy, she said, refused to shake her hand because she’s a woman. A 7-year-old boy asked for a knife to show a friend how to behead a doll. “We have slowly changed their ideas and the way they think,” al-Chalabi said. (Maya Alleruzzo / AP)

Updated on Oct 21, 2018 2:53 PM

Shoes are stacked on shelves at the Salhiya Orphanage. One 5-year-old boy, she said, refused to shake her hand because she’s a woman. A 7-year-old boy asked for a knife to show a friend how to behead a doll. “We have slowly changed their ideas and the way they think,” al-Chalabi said. (Maya Alleruzzo / AP)

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