Islamic State 'hang children from pole' for eating during Ramadan

Islamic State militants left two boys hanging from a crossbar in a Syrian village as punishment for not fasting during Ramadan, according to the Syrian Observatory of Human Rights.

"The children have been suspended by ropes from a pole since noon, and they were still there in the late evening," the organisation's Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP. "Apparently, they were caught eating."

It is reported they were left strung up by the wrists near the headquarters of the jihadi police. They also had placard around their necks which read: "They broke the fast with no religious justification."

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The boys are not believed to have died as a result of the punishment, which was likely to have been carried out as a warning to others.

Throughout the holy month of Ramadan, Muslims abstain from eating, drinking, smoking and having sex from dawn until sunset as a sign of religious devotion.

However, the requirement does not apply to children who have not reached puberty, pregnant women, the ill, elderly or people who are travelling.

The attack on the boys took place in place Mayadin, a city in the oil-rich province of Deir Ezzor which fell to IS last year.

The militants are in control of swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria and enforce a strict interpretation of Sharia law, with limbs of thieves amputated and adulterers thrown off high buildings or stoned to death.

Last year the UN reported that IS militants were taking abducted Iraqi children to markets and selling them as sex slaves. Young boys are increasingly being targeted by the group as suicide bombers, human shields and bomb makers, according to Reuters.

"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," said Renate Winter from the UN Committee of the Rights of a Child.