US claims Al-Qaeda using children as Iraq suicide bombers

[maddezmom]

Source: AFP

BAGHDAD (AFP) - Al-Qaeda is using children as suicide bombers in Iraq, with at least two attacks in the past week committed by 15-year-olds, a US military commander claimed on Sunday.

"We are not sure whether one of these children even knew he was being used to deliver a bomb," Rear Admiral Gregory Smith told a news conference in Baghdad.

One attack was carried out at a funeral ceremony near Tikrit, executed dictator Saddam Hussein's home town 180 kilometres (110 miles) north of Baghdad and the other was at a school in the northern city of Mosul, Smith said.

He gave no details of the two bombings. Iraqi police said 17 people died in a January 21 suicide blast at the funeral ceremony near Tikrit for relatives of an Iraqi police colonel.



Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080127/wl_mideast_afp/iraqunrestqaeda_080127143724

[hobbit709]

1. More demonizing

Al-Qaeda will do anything we consider evil just because. Even if true that they are using 15 year olds(most likely true), you have to understand that in their culture what we consider a child is regarded as practically an adult. And before the US government gets on its moral high horse, what about the torturing of children in front of their parents to get them to talk? when the bush cabal changed all the rules, what made them think the other side wouldn't learn to play by the new rules?

[bemildred]

2. "We think the price is worth it." -- Madeleine Albright

---

Then-Secretary of State Madeleine Albright's quote, calmly asserting that U.S. policy objectives were worth the sacrifice of half a million Arab children, has been much quoted in the Arabic press. It's also been cited in the United States in alternative commentary on the September 11 attacks (e.g., Alexander Cockburn, New York Press, 9/26/01).

But a Dow Jones search of mainstream news sources since September 11 turns up only one reference to the quote--in an op-ed in the Orange Country Register (9/16/01). This omission is striking, given the major role that Iraq sanctions play in the ideology of archenemy Osama bin Laden; his recruitment video features pictures of Iraqi babies wasting away from malnutrition and lack of medicine (New York Daily News, 9/28/01). The inference that Albright and the terrorists may have shared a common rationale--a belief that the deaths of thousands of innocents are a price worth paying to achieve one's political ends--does not seem to be one that can be made in U.S. mass media.

http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=1084

[pattmarty]

3. Can you say P-R-O-P-A-G-A-N-D-A?????????

[ohio2007]

23. yes,

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=552_1201538050

[SpikeTss]

4. Al-Qaeda is as bad as the British army?

Al Qaeda is (mis-)using child soldiers, just as the British army does in Iraq?
Wouldn't have thought that!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/1383998.stm

UK 'shamed' over teenage soldiers

Britain has been criticised in a new report which identifies countries that routinely recruit child soldiers.

The Child Soldiers Global Report, released on Tuesday, identifies the UK Government as the only country in Europe that still recruits 16-year-olds, and routinely sends soldiers as young as 17 into battle.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2007/mar2007/chld-m08.shtml

British Army used under-18-year-old soldiers in Iraq occupation

A recent written answer to a parliamentary question from the Liberal Democrats revealed that the British Army sent 15 soldiers under the age of 18 to fight in Iraq, contravening a United Nation’s protocol on children’s rights.

[notadmblnd]

5. why are 15 year olds considered children in Iraq?

here in the US if they do anything wrong 15 year olds are treated as adults?

[ohio2007]

9. 11 year olds are brought up on rape cases more and more these days nt

[MikeNearMcChord]

6. Next thing they will say that Al-Qaeda

nails kittens to shop doors, is responsible for all that spam in your e-mail
and is behind the terrible performance of the Miami Heat, :evilgrin: (and for you New York Giant Fans) is still supplying Bill Belichick with illegal videos of Giant play calling signs in time for the Super Bowl.

[Dirty Hippie]

7. Didn't they say something similar in Vietnam?

Children with hand grenades?

I guess it helps ease the conscience. Oh I forget... What conscience.

[ohio2007]

8. 15 year old ?

they blow up so fast.
Seems the women reserves will be tapped next ...followed by the infantry on their hips.

dunno why they like to target funerals attended by Iraqi's so much? MSM never seems to question the civilian death toll during these gatherings.
wtf is that all about ?

this is becoming more and more an Iraqi issue their govt must address
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/newsfull.php?newid=82792


http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/iraq_dc;_ylt=Am9ObOo5LQiBsPfZG2KGq3JX6GMA

[Hugabear]

10. An excuse for US forces to not feel guilty about killing children?

I guess if they happen to blow away a village and kill a bunch of kids, they can claim that they were "Al Qaeda".

[shadowknows69]

11. Bingo

[acmavm]

12. EXACTLY! Also, this primes the pump to claim that these 'children' were

killed in self-defense rather than the continuous stories of US soldiers killing anyone in their gun sights. This way the can say these 'children' in THEIR own country were terraists, not civilians suffering under an occupation.

[gratuitous]

13. Okay, I think I got it

When a 15-year-old straps on a bomb, he's a child.

When a 14-year-old is gang-raped by our solders, she's a woman. And her family must then be massacred.

Thanks, U.S. Military; you always make everything soooo clear.

[liberalsoldier5]

16. Please lay off the "U.S. Military"...

The Americans who commit atrocious acts in Iraq are scumbags who get punished by the U.S. military, a generally honorable organization to say the least. The punks who turn teens into human bombs are applauded by their organization. BIG difference.

[gratuitous]

19. Punished?

Like Haditha? Abu Ghraib? Kama Aido? Spare me.

[TankLV]

21. sorry - no sale...

I guess YOUR Illegal REPUKE War of CHOICE based on LIES is just ducky, huh?

[Barrett808]

14. I don't find this hard to believe at all

AQI wouldn't hesitate for a second to rig kids with suicide vests -- they have no qualms about blowing them up en masse in their attacks.

Of course, the Interior Ministry also has no qualms about viciously torturing children to death, and US forces routinely shoot and bomb kids in air strikes, so the brutality against children in Iraq is nearly universal.

[ohio2007]

24. take your kid to work day

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=552_1201538050

[L0oniX]

15. Hmmm ...and very young Vietnamese kids used grenades to blow up GIs

Some things don't change in war.

[ohio2007]

17. U.S. Admiral: Foreigners Behind Nine Out Of Ten Suicide Bombings In Iraq

http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7009824170

Basically, it means these 'kids' are getting their parents permission to leave home and blow themselves up in some sort of student exchange program ?

[Xenotime]

18. US will claim just about anything to make their actions appear just.

[TankLV]

20. as opposed to the US just killing the children OUTRIGHT...

for a fucking ILLEGAL WAR OF CHOICE BASED ON LIES!!!

but don't let THAT bother ya...

[ohio2007]

22. Terrorist use young boy for suicide bomber to attack US troops -

oh, never mind. Using children is ok and encouraged in Afghanistan

take off the rose colored glasses and see what 'the freedom fighters' post;

Terrorist use young boy for suicide bomber to attack US troops -
Afghanistan, This kid gets into a Truck loaded with Explosives and is seen celebrating as he drives off to his Death. Quite chilling considering he is so young.
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=552_1201538050


any comments?

photo shopped ? ;)

they blow up so fast don't they ?

[conspirator]

25. as if the 18 year old american GI's were mature man n/t