thedrifter
02-06-08, 07:42 PM
U.S.: Video shows al-Qaida training kids
By Lauren Frayer - The Associated Press
Posted : Wednesday Feb 6, 2008 16:02:36 EST
BAGHDAD — Boys in soccer jerseys don black masks and grab weapons. They scramble over mud brick walls, blast down doors and hold guns to the heads of sleeping residents inside.
The U.S. military says videos seized from suspected al-Qaida hide-outs show militants training children as young as 10 to kidnap and kill. It’s a sign the terror network — hungry for recruits — may be using younger Iraqis in propaganda to lure the next generation of holy warriors.
Video tape shown to reporters Wednesday depicted an apparent training session with black-masked boys — ammunition belts draped across their small chests — forcing a man off his bicycle at gunpoint and marching him off down a muddy lane. An off-camera voice instructs children with assault rifles into firing positions.
At one point, the boys huddle in a circle on an empty cement floor, solemnly pledging allegiance to al-Qaida.
“Al-Qaida in Iraq wants to poison the next generation of Iraqis,” Rear Adm. Gregory Smith, a U.S. military spokesman, told reporters inside the Green Zone. “It is offering children as the new generation of mujahedeen,” he said, using the Arabic term for holy warriors.
But U.S. and Iraqi officials said they could offer no estimate of how many children have slipped into al-Qaida’s grip. They named just a handful of attacks blamed on women or children, including twin pet market bombings Friday in Baghdad in which officials said two mentally disabled teenage girls were strapped with remote-controlled explosives.
The videos, which U.S. troops seized in a December raid in Khan Bani Saad northeast of Baghdad, bore stark scenes of innocents mimicking the violence and aggression many Iraqi children have grown up around since soon after the 2003 U.S. invasion.
But while images have captured children pretending to be insurgents before — in haunting, mock executions acted out on sidewalks and in backyards — the footage aired Wednesday appeared to show organized militant training sessions. It suggested an effort by al-Qaida-inspired insurgents to train ever-younger — and less conspicuous — militants.
The raw footage was likely to be incorporated into propaganda films for al-Qaida or other militant groups.
“We believe this video is used as propaganda to send out to recruit other boys ... and to send a broader message across Iraq to indoctrinate youth into al-Qaida,” Smith said.
American soldiers frequently discover propaganda materials among the weapons and ammunition they confiscate daily in raids across Iraq.
In a Dec. 8 operation in Muqdadiyah north of the Iraqi capital, U.S. troops found an Arabic movie script with scenes of terrorists training children and of children interrogating and executing victims, Smith said.
Both the videos and film script were found in Diyala province, a hotbed of Sunni militant activity where U.S. and Iraqi forces have struggled for years to contain a virulent insurgency.
Smith said the military decided to air the videos of children to reveal al-Qaida’s “morally broken ideology” and encourage Iraqis to reject the terror group and its fundamentalist ways. Tens of thousands of mostly Sunni tribesmen have already crossed lines to join the Americans in ousting militants from their hometowns.
“Iraq’s democratic and elected government is building schools ... and offers the children of Iraq hope for a peaceful and prosperous future. Al-Qaida in Iraq sends 15-year-old boys and mentally handicapped women on suicide missions, builds car bombs and is trying to teach children how to kill,” Smith said.
In one scene, young terror trainees — toting guns as long as the children are tall — pile out of a van in military-style formation. They surround a car and force out the mock driver. One hauls along a rocket-propelled grenade launcher.
Another tape shows a young boy wearing a suicide vest and posing with automatic weapons.
Iraqi Defense Ministry spokesman Mohammed al-Askari told reporters he thought militants were kidnapping more and more Iraqi children, though he could not offer details or numbers.
“This is not only to recruit them, but also to demand ransom to fund the operations of al-Qaida,” al-Askari said. He aired another grainy video clip that he said showed Iraqi security forces rescuing an 11-year-old boy who had been kidnapped by al-Qaida.
The short clip was mostly dark, and showed a young boy blinking in the beam of a flashlight. Al-Qaida had demanded a $100,000 ransom for his release, but an informant’s tip led to his rescue, al-Askari said.
Smith said that before 2007, five women had been responsible for suicide bombings and other attacks across Iraq. Ten women have carried out attacks since then, and there have been four female suicide bombers already this year, he said.
U.S. and Iraqi officials have said two women with Down syndrome carried out Friday’s suicide attacks in two Baghdad pet markets, resulting in the deaths of nearly 100 people. On Wednesday, Smith said the women were also in their teens but did not give their ages.
The claim that the women were mentally disabled has drawn criticism. A gruesome cell phone video of one of the bomber’s heads did not show clear signs the woman had Down syndrome. Smith came under questioning from reporters Wednesday over the possibility that the U.S. military might be overly emphasizing the woman’s mental condition to further repudiate those responsible.
He said Iraqi authorities had thoroughly investigated the women’s identities and determined they did have Down syndrome.
Ellie
By Lauren Frayer - The Associated Press
Posted : Wednesday Feb 6, 2008 16:02:36 EST
BAGHDAD — Boys in soccer jerseys don black masks and grab weapons. They scramble over mud brick walls, blast down doors and hold guns to the heads of sleeping residents inside.
The U.S. military says videos seized from suspected al-Qaida hide-outs show militants training children as young as 10 to kidnap and kill. It’s a sign the terror network — hungry for recruits — may be using younger Iraqis in propaganda to lure the next generation of holy warriors.
Video tape shown to reporters Wednesday depicted an apparent training session with black-masked boys — ammunition belts draped across their small chests — forcing a man off his bicycle at gunpoint and marching him off down a muddy lane. An off-camera voice instructs children with assault rifles into firing positions.
At one point, the boys huddle in a circle on an empty cement floor, solemnly pledging allegiance to al-Qaida.
“Al-Qaida in Iraq wants to poison the next generation of Iraqis,” Rear Adm. Gregory Smith, a U.S. military spokesman, told reporters inside the Green Zone. “It is offering children as the new generation of mujahedeen,” he said, using the Arabic term for holy warriors.
But U.S. and Iraqi officials said they could offer no estimate of how many children have slipped into al-Qaida’s grip. They named just a handful of attacks blamed on women or children, including twin pet market bombings Friday in Baghdad in which officials said two mentally disabled teenage girls were strapped with remote-controlled explosives.
The videos, which U.S. troops seized in a December raid in Khan Bani Saad northeast of Baghdad, bore stark scenes of innocents mimicking the violence and aggression many Iraqi children have grown up around since soon after the 2003 U.S. invasion.
But while images have captured children pretending to be insurgents before — in haunting, mock executions acted out on sidewalks and in backyards — the footage aired Wednesday appeared to show organized militant training sessions. It suggested an effort by al-Qaida-inspired insurgents to train ever-younger — and less conspicuous — militants.
The raw footage was likely to be incorporated into propaganda films for al-Qaida or other militant groups.
“We believe this video is used as propaganda to send out to recruit other boys ... and to send a broader message across Iraq to indoctrinate youth into al-Qaida,” Smith said.
American soldiers frequently discover propaganda materials among the weapons and ammunition they confiscate daily in raids across Iraq.
In a Dec. 8 operation in Muqdadiyah north of the Iraqi capital, U.S. troops found an Arabic movie script with scenes of terrorists training children and of children interrogating and executing victims, Smith said.
Both the videos and film script were found in Diyala province, a hotbed of Sunni militant activity where U.S. and Iraqi forces have struggled for years to contain a virulent insurgency.
Smith said the military decided to air the videos of children to reveal al-Qaida’s “morally broken ideology” and encourage Iraqis to reject the terror group and its fundamentalist ways. Tens of thousands of mostly Sunni tribesmen have already crossed lines to join the Americans in ousting militants from their hometowns.
“Iraq’s democratic and elected government is building schools ... and offers the children of Iraq hope for a peaceful and prosperous future. Al-Qaida in Iraq sends 15-year-old boys and mentally handicapped women on suicide missions, builds car bombs and is trying to teach children how to kill,” Smith said.
In one scene, young terror trainees — toting guns as long as the children are tall — pile out of a van in military-style formation. They surround a car and force out the mock driver. One hauls along a rocket-propelled grenade launcher.
Another tape shows a young boy wearing a suicide vest and posing with automatic weapons.
Iraqi Defense Ministry spokesman Mohammed al-Askari told reporters he thought militants were kidnapping more and more Iraqi children, though he could not offer details or numbers.
“This is not only to recruit them, but also to demand ransom to fund the operations of al-Qaida,” al-Askari said. He aired another grainy video clip that he said showed Iraqi security forces rescuing an 11-year-old boy who had been kidnapped by al-Qaida.
The short clip was mostly dark, and showed a young boy blinking in the beam of a flashlight. Al-Qaida had demanded a $100,000 ransom for his release, but an informant’s tip led to his rescue, al-Askari said.
Smith said that before 2007, five women had been responsible for suicide bombings and other attacks across Iraq. Ten women have carried out attacks since then, and there have been four female suicide bombers already this year, he said.
U.S. and Iraqi officials have said two women with Down syndrome carried out Friday’s suicide attacks in two Baghdad pet markets, resulting in the deaths of nearly 100 people. On Wednesday, Smith said the women were also in their teens but did not give their ages.
The claim that the women were mentally disabled has drawn criticism. A gruesome cell phone video of one of the bomber’s heads did not show clear signs the woman had Down syndrome. Smith came under questioning from reporters Wednesday over the possibility that the U.S. military might be overly emphasizing the woman’s mental condition to further repudiate those responsible.
He said Iraqi authorities had thoroughly investigated the women’s identities and determined they did have Down syndrome.
Ellie