Don't call them ‘ISIS’, call them ‘Daesh’

As dozens gather around the town square to watch with emotionless expressions, the boy kneels on the ground - purportedly in Anbar, Iraq - as he accepts his penalty.

His punisher relentlessly whips the boy in the short clip, who appears to be crying and pleading for mercy. 

The child's crime was to refer to the terror group as 'Daesh' -a loose acronym for the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (al-Dawla Al-Islamiya al-Iraq al-Sham). 

The term is used by enemies of the group and has negative undertones, as it sounds similar to Arabic words which mean 'one who crushes something underfoot' and 'one who sows discord'.

The video of the barbaric punishment was posted to Facebook on Tuesday and has been viewed thousands of times. 

Daesh have released a series of shocking pictures and videos in recent months showing the brutal punishments handed out to those who break the rules.

Behaviour such as women not covering their heads, men shaving, and music playing are all cause for punishment under strict Sharia law. 

And those who commit more serious crimes have been executed in public. 

So-called adulterous women have been stoned to death, men who have allegedly engaged in homosexual acts have been thrown from the tops of buildings and bandits have been crucified in the streets. 

Earlier this week, Islamic State militants in Syria publicly beheaded a man for allegedly practising witchcraft.

The unknown man was photographed being killed by a masked executioner in a village just outside Daesh's stronghold and de facto capital Raqqa while a large crowd looked on.

Precise details of the victim's so-called crime are not known, but he was charged with witchcraft and 'invoking magic'.

Over the past two months, the group has also executed 120 of its own members, most of them foreign fighters trying to return home, according to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.