Insurgents use teenagers in attacks in Iraq_English_Xinhua

Insurgents use teenagers in attacks in Iraq_English_Xinhua

BAGHDAD, June 6 (Xinhua) -- Iraqi insurgents have increasingly used teenagers in their attacks against U.S. troops and Iraqi security forces, the U.S. military said on Saturday.

A military statement provided details about five teenagers between 14 to 19 who have been involved in grenade attacks and suicide bombings.

It said the teenage attackers are "part of a growing trend of children carrying out attacks on Iraqi security and U.S. forces" in Kirkuk province in northern Iraq.

In the town of Hawijah, some 30 km west of Kirkuk, a teenage boy was seen on Thursday throwing a grenade at a joint U.S. and Iraqi police patrol, but the grenade failed to detonate, the statement said.

Days earlier, two teenagers, aged between 14 to 16, separately attacked two joint patrols in the same town, one of the attackers was captured, the statement said.

The military also said that a boy possibly aged 14 was the driver in a suicide car bombing that killed five Iraqi policemen in oil-rich city of Kirkuk.

Also in Kirkuk, a 19-year-old man was captured by Iraqi police while attempting to detonate his explosive vest at a Shiite mosque on May 1, it said.

Col. Hugh McNeely, the deputy commander of 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, based near Hawijah, said the "terrorists actively recruit them (teenagers) to risk their lives for goals that the child probably doesn't even understand."

"To endanger children with acts of terrorism is despicable," the statement quoted McNeely as saying.

Four alleged members of a group known to recruit children were arrested in Kirkuk on April 14, it said.

The U.S. military frequently said that al-Qaida in Iraq network was recruiting children and women to carry out insurgent activities, including suicide bombings.

Al-Qaida organization uses female suicide bombers as Muslim women can not be body-searched by the male police according to Islamic culture and they could easily escape security frisking. Children could also easily pass the security checks because of their apparent innocence.