Iraqi children recruited as suicide bombers

Iraqi children are being recruited as suicide bombers by various militias and insurgent groups, the United Nations said today.

UN official Radhika Coomaraswamy said her recent five-day trip to Iraq convinced her that the country’s children are “the silent victims of the ongoing violence.”

Today’s statement by the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict comes almost three months after the US military showed videos seized from suspected al Qaida in Iraq hideouts.

The films revealed militants training children who appear as young as 10 to kidnap and kill.

Young children are rarely behind insurgent attacks in Iraq, though they have been used as decoys.