Iraqi Insurgents Enlist Kids for Dirty Work

US detention center adds school for captured child fighters
By Jonas Oransky,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 27, 2007 3:54 PM CDT
Iraqi Insurgents Enlist Kids for Dirty Work
An Iraqi boy throws a stone at a burning sports utility vehicle after a roadside bomb exploded in central Basra, Iraq's second-largest city, 550 kilometers (340 miles) southeast of Baghdad,on Friday, May 25, 2007. Of those arrested, the vast majority of boy soldiers are involved in the planting of roadside...   (Associated Press)

Iraqi children are playing an amplified role in insurgent attacks, and the US is struggling to cope with the consequences. The ranks of minors detained by American forces have grown from 100 to 800 since March, the LA Times reports. Boys as young as 11 set off roadside bombs for $200 or $300, enough to feed their families for weeks.

Experts say a staunched flow of foreign fighters has inspired new recruiting of children. The detention center for minors has added school facilities where the boy prisoners study Arabic, English, math, geography and science—as well as new Iraqi government institutions. Sleeping quarters are divided into Sunni and Shiite sections, but members of both sects share the classrooms. (More Iraq stories.)

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