Afghan rebels 'forced to recruit children of 14 to fight'

Fierce fighting in recent months has devastated the ranks of the Taliban, prompting the rebels to recruit children and force some families to provide one son to fight with them, a US commander said.

The fighting has fractured the Taliban’s command structure, preventing the militants from regrouping, even though there has been an upsurge in violence, said Major General Jason Kamiya, the US military operational commander in Afghanistan.

In an interview on Saturday with Associated Press he said that despite the setback – more than 500 rebels have been killed since March – the militants are likely to step up their assaults in the lead-up to crucial September 18 legislative elections.

“The Taliban and al-Qaida feel that this is their final chance to impede Afghanistan’s progress to ... becoming a nation,” Kamiya said. “They will challenge us all the way through September 18.”

Afghan Defence ministry spokesman General Mohammed Saher Azimi also predicted an increase in violence in the lead-up to the polls, but said today that the government was boosting the size of the police force and army to counter the threat.

Kamiya said the rebels were desperately trying to recruit new fighters to replace those killed recently, and has even forced families in some areas “to give up one son to fight.”

“They have been hit so hard they now have to recruit more fighters. They are recruiting younger and younger fighters: 14, 15 and 16 years-old,” Kamiya said.

“The enemy is having a hard time keeping its recruit rates up.”

While the rebels have long been thought to have children in their ranks, there have been few reports of wide-scale child recruiting by the Taliban – especially of those as young as 14.

Kamiya’s comments come two days after the United Nations said that the majority of an estimated 8,000 child soldiers in Afghanistan – mostly in the ranks of private militias now allied to the government – would have been demobilised and enrolled in education programs by the end of this year.

The effort has focused largely on areas outside the country’s southern and eastern regions, where the Taliban are strongest.