Taliban recruiting nine-year-old suicide bombersTaliban mullahs in Pakistan are recruiting child suicide bombers as young as nine to blow up Nato targets according to Afghan intelligence officials who have intercepted would-be attackers.
Police seized a nine-year-old and three others aged between 12 and 14 as they tried to cross into eastern Afghanistan.
A spokesman for the Afghan intelligence agency said the boy is believed to be the youngest suicide bomber ever intercepted, though children as young as five have been used to plant bombs in Helmand.
The use of child suicide bombers to target Nato troops, government officials and those working with Hamid Karzai's government has been an insurgent tactic for several years, he said, but had increased recently. >>>
The child bombers are often lied to, brainwashed, or coerced inside Pakistan and have been responsible for several deadly bombings in recent months. They are considered easier to recruit and more gullible than adults. >>>
The boys had been given amulets containing verses from the Koran which they were told would protect them from the explosion. On their return, they would be hailed as heroes and their parents would be guaranteed entry into heaven.
Ghulam Farooq, the nine-year-old, said: "Our mullah told us that when we carried out our suicide attacks, all the people around us would die, but we would stay alive."
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Human Rights Watch 2007:"In over twenty countries around the world, children are direct participants in war. Denied a childhood and often subjected to horrific violence, an estimated 200,000 to 300,000 children are serving as soldiers for both rebel groups and government forces in current armed conflicts".
Did you hear about Iranians sending kids into the mine fields?
Ettelaat, an Iranian daily, reported, "Before entering the minefields, the children wrap themselves in blankets and they roll on the ground, so that their body parts stay together after the explosion of the mines and one can carry them to the graves."
