Children in the Service of Terror

MEMRI (21/7/2009)

"From Afghanistan to Pakistan, from Iraq to Palestine, [terror] organizations are recruiting boys (some under 15) and training them to carry out suicide bombings - and sometimes these are carried out. For diverse reasons and under diverse circumstances, children are stripped of their innocence and transformed into deadly weapons. Whatever the [reasons and circumstances], the result is the same: lost childhood, a bleak future, and the spread of terrorism...

"The recruitment of children is a phenomenon that is becoming increasingly widespread. UNESCO estimates that a quarter of a million children have been recruited into armed organizations, behind whose banner of religion are political causes."