Rights group accuses Islamic State militants of torturing captured Kurdish children in Syria

A Syrian Kurdish refugee child from Kobani walks between tents at a refugee camp in Suruc, near the Turkey-Syria border Monday, Nov. 3, 2014. Kobani, also known as Ayn Arab, and its surrounding areas, has been under assault by extremists of the Islamic State group since mid-September and is being defended by Kurdish fighters. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda) (The Associated Press)

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A Lebanese Shiite supporter of Hezbollah, covers his face as he listens to the story of Imam Hussein, during the holy day of Ashoura, in the southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday Nov. 4, 2014. Shiites mark Ashoura, the tenth day of the Islamic month of Muharam, to commemorate the Battle of Karbala in the 7th century when Imam Hussein, a grandson of Prophet Muhammad, was killed in present-day Iraq. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla) (The Associated Press)

Shiite Muslim worshippers gather in front of the holy shrine of Imam Hussein to mark Ashoura in the Shiite holy city of Karbala, 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of Baghdad, Iraq, Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2014. Hundreds of thousands of Shiite pilgrims have flocked to an Iraqi holy city for the peak of a 10-day religious ritual amid tight security over fears of sectarian attacks. (AP Photo/Karim Kadim) (The Associated Press)

BEIRUT – An international rights group says Islamic State militants tortured and abused Kurdish children captured earlier this year near the northern Syrian town of Kobani.

Human Rights Watch based its conclusions on interviews with several children who were among more than 150 Kurdish boys from Kobani abducted in late May as they were returning home after taking school exams in the city of Aleppo.

It says around 50 of the Kurds escaped, while the rest were released in batches — the last coming on Oct. 29.

Four of the children held by the extremists described frequent beatings with a hose and electric cable.

Human Rights Watch's Fred Abrahams says the evidence of the Islamic State group's abuse of children "underlines why no one should support their criminal enterprise."