I can assume taking pictures like these will be unlikely in my last few months in country. The following article describes teen and pre-teen boys being used as attackers, paid a small sum to throw a grenade and then become a target (photos are mine). Any response from soldiers would appear as over-reaction and cause anger among Iraqis.
The scenario is actually easy for me to imagine. Not because the kids I see ar violent but rather they seem eager to please, and are constantly trying to make an extra buck, bottle of water, candy bar, or "football." Of the Englizi they do know, words like, Hero, Spiderman, and SWAT. As well I watch for myself how their loyalty always shifts to the biggest kid in the group.
It's too easy to picture an impressionable boy with his wayward energy, an incomplete concept of death, and big ideas, suddenly with a fist full of cash in one hand and what he sees as a symbol of power and glory in the other. So, in our last couple months in Iraq, as needed, we'll be keeping our distance and yelling at them to stay away. That will be a strange parting shot for me and other soldiers who have made a small raport with these kids that came out to our trucks on a regular basis.
U.S.: Insurgents using teens to stage Iraq attacks
BAGHDAD (AP) -– Teenagers armed with grenades and suicide vests are the latest recruits for Sunni insurgents trying to find new ways to outwit heightened security measures and attack American and Iraqi forces, the U.S. military said Saturday.
The use of boys also serves a propaganda purpose — the soldiers face criticism for harming children if they fire back. Insurgents first turned to women to carry out suicide bombings, causing U.S. and Iraqi troops to step up recruiting and training of female searchers at checkpoints to seek explosives easily hidden under women's billowing black robes. Now they appear to be using youths and weapons that are easier to hide like grenades as they face omnipresent checkpoints and convoys aimed at bolstering security gains that have caused the level of violence to plummet nationwide.
“With grenade attacks, insurgents hope to capitalize on reports of civilian injuries blamed on a coalition response to the attack,” said Maj. Derrick Cheng, a spokesman for U.S. forces in northern Iraq. “However, the reality is that the grenade explosion itself causes the majority of civilian casualties.”
The military has said in the past it believes al-Qaida in Iraq and other insurgent groups are recruiting children because of their ability to avoid scrutiny. But a statement issued Saturday was the first to provide detailed allegations of teenage suspects in what the military called “a growing trend of children carrying out attacks on Iraqi security and U.S. forces.” Cheng stressed roadside bombs are still the main mode of attack against U.S. forces but said grenades are often the weapon of choice in urban areas where it is harder to plant explosives without being seen.
Young men can quickly throw the grenades then fade into the crowd, depriving the soldiers of the chance to fight back amid fears that they'll hit innocent civilians. The tactic has been used in fighting before but takes on added significance as the Americans have been trying to improve relations with the Iraqi public in a bid to stem support for the insurgency. Army Col. Gary Volesky, who commands U.S. troops in northern Iraq's Ninevah province, said grenade attacks are on the rise but a “more disturbing trend” was the recruiting of children to throw them.
On May 9, U.S. soldiers killed a 12-year-old boy who the military said was believed to be involved in a grenade attack in the northern city of Mosul. Local residents said he was an innocent civilian. But the military said the boy was found with 10,000 dinars, or about $9, in his hand, which they said suggested he had been paid by insurgents. At least five other youths between the ages of 14 and 19 have been involved in grenade and suicide attacks in recent weeks in northern Iraq, it said. Those included a 15-year-old boy who was captured last week after lobbing a grenade at a joint U.S.-Iraqi patrol in Hawijah, west of the disputed northern city of Kirkuk. Another teenage boy threw a grenade at a U.S.-Iraqi patrol in the same area on Thursday, then fled the scene when it failed to detonate, the military said.
Nobody was harmed in those attacks. Two U.S. soldiers were killed in separate grenade attacks elsewhere in the area on Thursday, although it was not known who was responsible for the incidents. A boy between the ages of 14 and 16 threw a grenade at a joint convoy of U.S. soldiers and Iraqi police in Hawijah on May 26, but no injuries or damage were reported, according to the statement. Four alleged members of a group known to recruit children were arrested on April 14, the military said.
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