By Tamara Abueish

DUBAI -- Iraqi police arrested two teenage boys for sexually assaulting and killing a seven-year-old boy in a crime that shook the country, authorities said in a statement on Tuesday night.

Shaheen Wissam Silwan had gone missing on May 1 in the Zammar district, northwest of Mosul.

“Shaheen went out around 10:30 p.m. His grandmother noticed he was missing, and Shaheen did not return so we went to look for him but we could not find him,” a relative told Al Arabiya.

After searching for the 7-year-old for three hours, his body was found in an abandoned mosque with his head crushed underneath a large brick, the relative said.

The two teenage boys, who are reportedly under the age of 18, confessed to the crime shortly after they were arrested.

Ahmed Al-Jabouri and Omar Al-Mamari revealed to authorities that they had lured Silwan to the mosque’s bathroom where they each raped him and then killed him by smashing his skull with a brick.

Authorities confirmed that the two boys would receive a fair punishment.

The heinous crime shocked Iraq and the entire region, with many social media users taking to Twitter to express their anger.

“What did this little angel do to die in this brutal way? This always reminds us that humans are the most dangerous being on this earth,” one Twitter user wrote.

“My heart is full of pain, what is the sin he did to deserve this?? No one can save this world from this monsters. Nothing describes the pain I feel for this child.” -- Al Arabiya English