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U.S.: Al-Qaida Using Iraqi Boys

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By LAUREN FRAYER, The Associated Press

Published: February 7, 2008

BAGHDAD - Boys in soccer jerseys don black masks and grab weapons. They scramble over mud-brick walls, blast down doors and hold guns to the heads of residents inside.

The U.S. military said videos seized from suspected al-Qaida in Iraq hideouts show militants training children who appear as young as 10 to kidnap and kill. It's viewed as a sign that the terror network, hungry for recruits, may be using younger Iraqis in propaganda to lure a new crop of fighters.

"Al-Qaida in Iraq wants to poison the next generation of Iraqis," said Rear Adm. Gregory Smith, a U.S. military spokesman. "It is offering children as the new generation of mujahedeen," he added, using the Arabic term for holy warriors.

The video, shown to reporters Wednesday, depicted an apparent training session with black-masked boys, ammunition belts draped across their small chests, forcing a man off his bicycle at gunpoint and marching him off down a muddy lane. An off-camera voice, speaking with an Iraqi accent, instructs children how to take firing positions with assault rifles.

At one point, the boys huddle in a circle on a concrete floor, solemnly pledging allegiance to al-Qaida.

U.S. and Iraqi officials said they could offer no estimate of how many children have joined the insurgency.

Children are rarely behind insurgent attacks in Iraq, although they have been used as decoys. In March, police said children were used in a car bombing in which the driver gained permission to park in a busy shopping area after pointing out that he was leaving his kids in the back seat. The children and three Iraqi bystanders were killed.

The military said the videos, seized in a raid in December in Khan Bani Saad northeast of Baghdad, were filmed in Iraq and depicted Iraqi children, but offered no definitive evidence. It could not be determined when the videos were made, he added.

"We believe this video is used as propaganda to send out to recruit other boys ... and to send a broader message across Iraq to indoctrinate youth into al-Qaida," Smith said.

The videos were found in Diyala province, a hotbed of Sunni militant activity.

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