Islamic State jihadists subjected a group of teenagers from the Syrian battleground town of Kobane to a string of abuses, including torture, during six months in captivity, Human Rights Watch said on Tuesday.

A group of 153 schoolchildren was taken hostage by IS in May en route to their hometown of Kobane after sitting exams in the Syrian city of Aleppo, according to HRW.

IS released the last 25 hostages in late October.

Interviewed in Turkey where they were given refuge, four boys from the group recounted regular beatings with cables and a hose and being forced to watch videos of IS militants in combat and beheading captives.

The Sunni militants forced the children — aged 14 to 16 — to pray five times a day and beat those who tried to escape or did poorly in compulsory religious lessons, the New York-based group said.

"Those who didn't conform to the programme were beaten. They beat us with a green hose or a thick cable with wire running through it. They also beat the soles of our feet…" one boy was quoted as saying.

"They made us learn verses of the Koran and beat those who didn't manage to learn them. When some boys tried to escape, the treatment got worse and we were all punished and given less food."

IS has captured large parts of Syria and Iraq, declaring an Islamic "caliphate" and committing a litany of atrocities, including beheadings, mass executions, torture and forcing women and children into slavery.

The group has besieged the mainly Kurdish town of Kobane just a few kilometres (miles) from the Turkish border, sparking an exodus of some 200,000 refugees to Turkey.

Those whose families were close to the Kurdish fighters defending Kobane were singled out by the captors, who were from Syria, Jordan, Libya, Tunisia, and Saudi Arabia, a boy said.

"They told them to give them the addresses of their families, cousins, uncles, saying 'When we go to Kobane we will get them and cut them up'."

The boys said they were given no explanation for their release other than that they had completed their religious education.

HRW said the abuse of the children was a "war crime under international humanitarian law" and urged the international community to swiftly take measures "to stem ISIS abuses."

Baghdad attacks targeting Shiites kill at least 16
Baghdad (AFP) Nov 04, 2014 –

A suicide bombing and shelling targeting Shiites in Baghdad killed at least 16 people ahead of major religious commemorations, Iraqi security and medical officials said on Tuesday.

Shelling struck a street in the Tunis area of northern Baghdad where Shiites were distributing refreshments from a tent on Monday, after which a suicide bomber detonated explosives in the same area, a police colonel said.

The attacks killed at least 11 people, while shelling in the Shiite-majority Kadhimiyah area, also in north Baghdad, left at least five people dead.

The Islamic State jihadist group, which considers Shiites to be heretics and has overrun large areas of Iraq, said in an online statement that a suicide bomber identified as Abu Khattab al-Iraqi carried out the attack in Tunis and a rocket attack in Kadhimiyah.

The statement did not mention shelling in the Tunis area, but appeared to be referring to the same incidents.

IS also claimed two car bombs targeting Shiites on Sunday that killed at least 18.

Iraq has implemented heavy security measures involving tens of thousands of security forces members and allied militiamen to protect Shiites during the Ashura religious commemorations.

Hundreds of thousands of Shiites flocked to the shrine city of Karbala south of Baghdad for Ashura, which marks the death of Imam Hussein, one of the most revered figures in Shiite Islam.

Ashura processions were also held in Baghdad and other parts of the country.

Shiites have been targeted during Ashura before, but this year's commemorations face even greater danger with IS in control of large areas of Iraq.

But as of early evening, there were no reported attacks during the peak of the commemorations on Tuesday.