They 'd just finished their middle school exams and were heading home to Kobani , Syria . But rather than relief and celebration , scores of Syrian Kurdish children say they endured torture and humiliation -- at the hands of ISIS . Human Rights Watch , an international advocacy organization , reported the allegations Tuesday based on interviews with four boys who said they were held by the Islamist extremist group for months . While CNN could not independently verify the claims , there certainly is precedent . International authorities , witnesses and people in the middle of yearslong strife in Syria and Iraq have accused ISIS of many misdeeds and war crimes in the past , including enslaving young women and children . Every story is hard to take , and those documented by Human Rights Watch are no exception . Yazidi women sold , raped , enslaved by ISIS . The boys , ages 14 to 16 , said they were part of a group making the roughly 150-kilometer ( 100-mile ) trek back from Aleppo from exams when ISIS militants halted and detained them on May 29 . ISIS let approximately 100 girls go within hours , but they kept the boys at a school in Manbij , some 50 kilometers southwest of Kobani , according to the Human Rights Watch report . Their living conditions there were sparse : sleeping with blankets on the floor , bathing once every two weeks , eating twice a day and getting occasional visits and calls from their parents . And it got much worse from there . The interviewed boys talked about being forced to watch videos of ISIS beheadings and attacks , pray five times daily and memorize parts of the Quran . If they did not do well enough on their religious lessons , if they tried to escape , if they did anything that was construed as misbehaving -- or even if they did not -- the young captives could be beaten with hoses and electrical cables , according to the Human Rights Watch report . The advocacy group said one child was tied up with his hands tied behind his back and one hand tied to his foot after calling out for his mother . `` They sometimes beat us for no reason , '' a 16-year-old boy said . A 15-year-old boy said that the detained children who had relatives in the Kurdish militia known the People 's Protection Units , or YPG , were treated the worst . YPG members were seen as nonbelievers in ISIS ' extreme brand of Sunni Islam , thus making them second-class citizens at best and mortal enemies at worst . `` They ( ISIS ) told them to give them the addresses of their families , cousins , uncles , saying , 'When we go to Kobani , we will get them and cut them up , ' '' the boy said . Some of the boys escaped , were released or were swapped for captive ISIS fighters between June and September . The terrorist group released about 75 boys -- including the four interviewed , who have since made their way across the border to Turkey -- in late September , with the equivalent of a U.S. dollar and a DVD featuring religious material . Kurdish officials said , according to HRW , that the remaining 25 boys were released a month later . The children 's hometown of Kobani has been the site of a fierce weekslong battle between ISIS and Kurdish fighters . Local Kurds have been aided by U.S.-led airstrikes , as well as the recent arrival from Iraq of Kurdish fighters known as Peshmerga . Iraqi Kurdish fighters join Kobani fight . Situated on the Turkish border , Kobani is seen by many as a key battleground in ISIS ' fight to expand its already vast territory in Syria . The extremist group has ruthlessly taken over much of this country in the past three-plus years as well as neighboring Iraq , with the U.N. Security Council and others alleging it has `` killed , kidnapped , raped , tortured or recruited as child fighters '' in the process .
Group : 4 say they were among 100 boys taken by ISIS on way back from exams . Comment: ISIS militants forced them to take religious lessons , watch beheading videos . ISIS has allegedly kidnapped , raped and killed in its campaign in Syria , Iraq .