U.S. military: Taliban turns to child soldiers in Afghan fight

Gregg Zoroya - USA TODAY - September 12

"We've seen children actually dropping mortar rounds in the (firing) tubes against us," says Lt. Col. Michael Manning, commander of the 1st Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment that is rotating home after seven months in this hilly northern district of Helmand Province.


Sgt. John Ellis, left, says he has found children selling heroin wrapped in torn pages of the Quran.

"I've never seen a culture that cares so little for human life. They (the Taliban) truly don't care unless it impacts their own personal family," says Manning, who has lost 13 Marines and seen 127 wounded since March.

The use of children on the battlefield has been spreading across Helmand, where Marines began an offensive to drive out the Taliban early this year, says Brig. Gen. Joseph Osterman, commander of all Marine ground combat forces here.

Marines have witnessed youngsters dragging away wounded Taliban, planting roadside bombs and collecting dropped weapons.

At a remote firebase east of here, a squad leader, Sgt. John Ellis, says he found children selling heroin dosages wrapped in torn pages of the Koran in the village streets. "We found children with pockets of heroin and wads of cash," Ellis says.

A Marine Corps battlefield report describes a fight in the Marja District in August, where retreating insurgents "placed five children shoulder to shoulder on (the roadway) to cover their movements. Once the children were placed, the Taliban element mounted their motorcycles and escaped."

Another section of the report describes how a child was sent out onto a roadway to observe a Marine patrol from a distance of 150 yards using hand signals to communicate patrol movements to an adult nearby. Later, the patrol was ambushed, the report says.

"In both instances, the Taliban elements were willing to place children in direct danger to avoid risking themselves," says the report, portions of which were provided to USA TODAY by Osterman's office.

"We're seeing an increasing trend," says Osterman.

Marine commanders believe that families are either coerced into allowing children to be used by Taliban fighters, or in the case of adolescents, paid money or offered inducements to fight, such as small, Chinese-made motorcycles.

"It's a recruitable, very easily influenced group of people," Manning says of the children being used. "And there's tons of them."

Osterman compares the trend with what happened in areas of Africa where child soldiers became veteran fighters. "Have they (the Taliban) gotten to that point of desperation now where they're going down that road which turns kids into combatants?" he says.

Marine officials say it is difficult to identify in how many instances insurgents have been seen using children in Helmand. But they said there have been 50 battlefield reports filed since March listing one or, often, several cases of kids used in combat.

Source: USA Today

 

another doctrine implemented to stop coalition soldiers from fighting

these guys suicide bomb markets with innocent women and children with no problems, so they have no moral obligations against that type of warfare.

our troops, on the other hand.........that's probably a nightmare scenario, to come face to face with a child and have to put a bullet between his eyes.