(LA Times/kansascity.com) BAGHDAD, Iraq | Child fighters, once a rare presence on Iraq’s battlefields, are playing a significant and growing role in kidnappings, killings and roadside bombings in the country, U.S. military officials say.
Boys, some as young as 11, now outnumber foreign fighters at U.S. detention camps in Iraq. Since March, their numbers have risen from 100 to 800, said Maj. Gen. Douglas Stone, the commander of detainee operations.
Stone attributes the rise in child fighters in the country, in part, to the pressure that the U.S. buildup of troops has placed on the influx of the foreign fighters. Fewer of them are making it into the country, he said, and the militant group al-Qaida in Iraq is having a difficult time recruiting adults locally. Thus, it has turned to children.
Stone said the children make effective fighters because they are easily influenced, don’t experience fear in the same way as adults and don’t draw as much scrutiny from U.S. forces.
Stone said some children have told interrogators that their parents encouraged them to do the militants’ dirty work because the extremists have deep pockets. (source)
Let me guess, no protests against this because after all the US MADE THEM use kids.
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