December 8, 2008 • 3:16 pm
This article by the Guardian UK is not the first story about child soldiers being recruited in Iraq by terror groups and/or militias. But the growing evidence that they are being coerced into serving as suicide bombers is alarming.
A raid on a major al-Qaeda hideout north of Baghdad has uncovered evidence of a network of child suicide bombers who have been coerced into launching terror attacks across Iraq. A blueprint for the training and recruitment of children was stored on a computer memory stick found on the body of an emir of al-Qaida in northern Iraq after he was killed in an assault on his underground hideout in mid-November.
The article reports on two recent events where children – one 13 and the other 10 years old – detonated themselves in attacks against U.S soldiers in Diyala and in Tarmiya.
The child assassin sprinted towards the sheikh as he stepped from his front gate, but tripped on his flip-flops several metres before his target and exploded his bomb prematurely. The sheikh lost one leg and is recovering in a US hospital.
The article also talks about children are being used by insurgents as a way to bypass security checkpoints.
Radhika Coomaraswamy, UN Special Representative for children and armed conflict, expressed concern at the growing evidence of child exploitation and recruitment by armed groups in Iraq, calling them “the silent victims of the ongoing violence.”
Filed under: Iraq, United Nations , Baghdad, child soldiers, Iraq, terrorism, United Nations, War
August 12, 2008 • 8:25 am
The Iraq Human Rights Ministry recently conducted interviews with more than 1,000 juveniles being held in prisons in Iraq – 338 in prisons run by US forces, and 669 in Iraqi-run prisons. The ministry says that most of these children have been convicted of terror or criminal acts. According to spokesman Hamza Kamil on July 29 (from IRIN):
Most of these juveniles [currently held in prisons] were being used [by the militants] either for transporting bombs to areas the militants can’t enter due to security cordons, or to daub walls with anti-government graffiti.
Mr. Kamil states:
We have evidence that the phenomenon of criminal gangs and terrorist groups recruiting juveniles – either by threatening them or luring them with money – has increased recently.
The Human Rights Ministry is also concerned about rehabilitation programs for the youth, noting that “family neglect frequently lay behind their involvement with militant groups.” Also, ”There should be clear and comprehensive rehabilitation programmes for these juveniles, either inside the prisons, or when they get out.”
Apparently there is going to be a new law to address this – and to protect the rights of children in Iraq - which is being drafted and presented to parliament later in 2008.
Filed under: Iraq , child soldier, children, Human Rights, Iraq, military, United Nations, War
August 11, 2008 • 7:31 am
…Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict for the United Nations, Ms. Radhika Coomaraswamy stated recently. After an April 2008 trip to Iraq, Ms. Coomaraswamy expressed her concern for the deteriorating situation for children there. In this press release:
Many of them no longer go to school, many are recruited for violent activities or detained in custody, they lack access to the most basic services and manifest a wide range of psychological symptoms from the violence in their everyday lives.
Specifically, she noted that “an increasing number of children have been recruited into various militias and insurgent groups, including as suicide bombers…” and urged groups currently recruiting or using child soldiers in their ranks to immediately release them.
Other postings on children fighting in Iraq:
Exact statistics or numbers of children fighting in Iraq are difficult to come by, but the evidence that they are there is certain.
More on this subject tomorrow…
Filed under: Iraq, United Nations , child soldier, children, Human Rights, Iraq, news, United Nations, War
I think this article from February 6, 2008 on Al Qaeda recruiting young boys, bears revisiting considering the NPR broadcast the other day (see April 15 post) on the increasing number of IDPs (internally displaced persons) in Iraq – nearly 3 million – many of which are children.
The concern, of course, is that the IDCs (internally displaced children), exposed and hardened by war and facing violence and tragedy on a regular basis, are ripe for recruitment by Al Qaeda.
If you missed the article, the new propaganda tapes released by Al Qaeda to MultiNational Forces-Iraq show:
masked Iraqi children between ages of 6-14 being taught how to hold AK-47s, stop a car and carry out a kidnapping, break into a house and break into a courtyard and terrorize the individuals living there.
Footage aired for reporters showed an apparent training operation in which the boys are seen storming a house and holding guns to the heads of mock residents. Another tape showed a young boy wearing a suicide vest and posing with automatic weapons.
They also are shown being taught to use rocket-propelled grenade launchers.
I’m not going to directly post the video, mainly because I refuse to assist Al Qaeda with propagating it across the Internet. But here is a link to a blog that has the video posted on it. Indirect posting.
Check out the next section of the article:
The kidnapping ring that was broken last week had recorded 26 other kidnappings. Coalition forces did not know how many had ended in release, and how many in death.
Iraqi Defense Ministry spokesman Mohammed al-Askari told reporters that militants are kidnapping more and more Iraqi children, though he could not offer details or numbers.
“This is not only to recruit them, but also to demand ransom to fund the operations of Al Qaeda,” al-Askari said.
Filed under: Al Qaeda, Iraq, Media/TV/Films , Al Qaeda, child soldier, children, crime, Iraq, war in iraq
April 15, 2008 • 11:27 pm
In the UK, the Conservative Party Human Rights Commision will hold a hearing on Child Soldiers April 23, 2008. Stay tuned for a report on the proceedings…
Today on Morning Edition of NPR, there was an interesting report on the Sadr Militias support of IDPs (internally displaced persons) in Iraq, many of which are children – providing the militias with reliable source for new recruits. The concern is the early preparation of children for warfare, similar to what has occurred in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Even if they’re not directly being given guns, they are being indoctrinated at a very young age.
Of course, it is not news that children have been used by insurgents throughout the Iraq war, see an article on CNN.com written in 2006 on a UN report on the use of ”child insurgents”.
Filed under: Human Rights, Iraq, Laws, Treaties , child soldier, child soldiers, Iraq, sadr militias, War
