The Islamic State on Thursday issued a new propaganda video apparently showing one of its child fighters beheading a Syrian soldier in the ancient city of Palmyra. In the video, the extremist group says it plans to extend its 'Caliphate' to Jerusalem and Rome as well.
"Our goal is not only Palmyra or Homs or Damascus, rather our goal is to conquer Bayt al- Maqdes [Jerusalem] and Rome, God willing," says an older militant, speaking to the camera.
In the video, the boy, who looks around 10 or 11 and is dressed in camouflage and a black head dress, stands over the Syrian officer who has been forced to lie on his front before pulling his head up by the hair and slitting his throat with a knife.
The video ends with the boy placing the soldiers' severed head on his back - the signature of IS beheadings. A senior ISIS fighter is seen watching throughout the killing.
The execution is said to have been carried out at Western Hir Palace in the province of Homs after the soldier was captured by at the nearby Al-Bosayri army checkpoint.
The unnamed officer is believed to have been a Syrian army commander in Palmyra, which ISIS captured in May, since when it is believed to have stage hundreds of barbaric public executions there.
Released to mark the Eid al-Fitr which follows the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, the purported new IS video was widely shared by the group's sympathisers on social media platforms.
The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which received the video, said it is was the first time the Al-Qaeda splinter group has used a child for beheading.
It is not the first time that IS has used children to kill, however. As recently as on Tuesday, a 14 year-old boy suicide bomber killed an unknown number of Syrian soldiers in a blast at the entrance to the city of Al-Hasakah in eastern Syria, according to the monitoring group.
At least 19 children have been used by IS as suicide bombers in attacks this year, the monitor said.
Earlier this month IS released a video showing 25 child executioners lining up regime soldiers and shooting them in the head inside the Roman amphitheatre at Palmyra - a UN World Heritage site.
In March, the group showed a young boy shooting dead an alleged Israeli spy at point-blank range and in January two boys shooting to death former jihadists who 'confessed' to being spies operating within IS on behalf of Russian intelligence.
