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-age murderer even pumps extra shots into the victim’s body after putting a bullet in his head.
He is flanked in the 13-minute footage by a Frenchman 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 professional-looking 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 mujahideen and the Muslims.”
Before them kneels 19-year-old Mohamed Musalam, wearing an orange jumpsuit and staring straight ahead.
Said and Hind Musalam, parents of a man who appeared to be executed by a child soldier in a recent ISIS video, mourn their son.UPIAfter the older man spews anti-Semitic rhetoric, the camouflage-clad boy — without the mask worn by other ISIS killers — stands in front of Musalam, raising a handgun to the teen’s forehead.
He shoots him once in the head, then fires three more bullets into the hostage’s fallen body, triumphantly exclaiming, “Allahu Akbar!” 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 their 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 agency Mossad 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 re-enactment of Musalam later trying to flee and confessing to being a spy once he’s caught.
“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 was 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 the Mossad.”
Mohamed’s devastated mother, Hind, wept when she heard the news of his death.
“A spy of 19? How is that possible? Why would he have gone there if he were a spy?” she asked reporters.
About 1,400 people from France have fled their home country to join ISIS militants in Syria and Iraq.
With Post wire services
