Record cruelty as children beheaded, buried alive, raped, crucified and sold as slaves by ISIS

Children in the hands of ISIS terrorists are being traded as sex slaves, buried alive, crucified, beheaded and forced to execute other kids, according to a UN watchdog.

A report from the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child on the horrendous acts of barbarism also claims children with mental difficulties are being used as suicide bombers - without even realising what their horrific fate is.

"We are really deeply concerned at torture and murder of those children, especially those belonging to minorities, but not only from minorities," committee expert Renate Winter said at a news briefing.

"The scope of the problem is huge.”

The report, released Wednesday, states: "The Committee notes the particularly severe effects of the ongoing armed conflict, political instability and presence of armed groups, the reinforcement of sectarian and ethnic division and the rise of religious extremism, leading to severe violations of children’s rights.

"It notes with the utmost concern the “markets” set up by the so-called ISIL (another name of ISIS), in which they sell abducted children and women attaching price tags to them; and the sexual enslavement of children detained in makeshift prisons of the so-called ISIL, such as the former Badoush prison outside Mosul.

The watchdog added that it "abhors and condemns" the brutal killings of children by Islamic State and in particular: “Cases of mass executions of boys, as well as reports of beheadings, crucifixions of children and burying children alive."

The report also states that children severely traumatised from witnessing the murder of their parents are subjected to physical and sexual assault by ISIS fighters.

"We have had reports of children, especially children who are mentally challenged, who have been used as suicide bombers, most probably without them even understanding," Winter said.

"There was a video placed (online) that showed children at a very young age, approximately eight years of age and younger, to be trained already to become child soldiers."

The Committee also highlights the prevalence of female genital mutilation (FGM) and cases where LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual or transexual) youngsters, or children suspected of being LGBT, as well as children showing a nonconformist attitudes, being persecuted, tortured and killed with “impunity".

The report added: "The Committee is concerned about the persistent and extreme gender-based discrimination which girls experience throughout their childhood and which exposes them to domestic violence; psychological and sexual exploitation and abuse; early, forced and temporary (Muta’a) marriage; as well as low access to education."