Child Exploitation Update — Is It OK to Call Them ‘Terorrists’ Yet?
Three weeks ago, there was a story of children used in a suicide attack in Iraq.
It doesn’t seem possible, but the story has gotten worse, and is part of a bigger, uglier situation:
“Those children were later identified to have had mental problems and for sure they didn’t know what they were doing there,†Sami added (Khalid Sami is a spokesman for the Iraq Ministry of Interior. — Ed.).
Officials at a local NGO, who refused to be named for security reasons, said they had received many reports that mentally handicapped children were being used in insurgent attacks, especially in cities such as Diyala, Ramadi and Fallujah.
“Some children were given by their families but many others were kidnapped by insurgents when they knew that those children had mental problems. Some of them were even taken from the doors of their houses or schools,†the NGO’s spokesperson said. “We have registered many cases of the disappearance of children with mental problems. According to information we got from Anbar province, those children are working with insurgents.â€
As noted a few weeks ago, and moreso true now, clean commentary is impossible.
