'Choose life, not death' reform centre tells Iraqi teenage militants

Security members escort Iraqi teenager Laith Abbas inside a reform centre in Dohuk, Iraq, February 12, 2017. Picture taken February 12, 2017. REUTERS/Azad Lashkari

DOHUK, Iraq (Reuters) - Wearing funky beads, Laith Abbas comes across as just another Iraqi teenager trying to look cool, until he describes how he clutched an AK-47 assault rifle at checkpoints along with other Islamic State militants who terrorised Mosul.

Abbas is one of 54 teenagers Kurdish authorities are trying to de-radicalise at a reform centre in the northern city of Dohuk for youths and women suspected of aiding Islamic State.