Iraqi Insurgents Using Children For Attacks
The BBC reports that the increased checkpoints implemented as part of the surge strategy has forced Iraqi insurgents into a brutal change in tactics. Believing them more likely to pass through the security posts, terrorists have begun using children to carry out suicide attacks on Iraqi civilians:
A US military official has said children have been used in a bomb attack in Iraq, raising fears that insurgents are using a new tactic.Gen Michael Barbero said a vehicle stopped at a checkpoint was waved through because two children were seen in the back, but was then detonated.
Militants were changing tactics in response to tighter security, he said. ...
Gen Barbero said there had been also two adults in the car. They parked it near a market, abandoned it with the children inside and apparently detonated it.
The two children died, along with three civilians in the vicinity, officials said.
No one knows the identity of the children or the adults in the car. One would presume that parents would have committed suicide along with their children, so it's probably safe to speculate that the children had been abducted for the purpose of using them as terror-attack shields. They may also have found the children on the streets and deceived them into thinking that the adults would take care of them.
The brutal nature of this new tactic shows a large amount of desperation on the part of the insurgents. First, now that we've seen that tactic, we will adapt security procedures to keep it from succeeding in the future. It only had use as long as the approach remained novel, but that time has passed. If checkpoints had been lax about checking children, they will no longer be so trusting.
Second and more importantly, it shows that the insurgents have given up all hope of convincing any Iraqis of the righteousness of their cause. Only the most bloodthirsty of people would find the exploitation of children as terror-attack shields to be convincing. The Iraqis on the street will look at this attack as beyond the pale, even for the region. The terrorists have earned themselves a great deal of revulsion, and they can expect even more Iraqis to support anything which brings an end to their viciousness and cruelty.
Only a group with nothing else left in its arsenal would try this. The terrorists have found the chlorine bombs ineffective, and the checkpoints have bitten deeply into their power base. This disgusting chapter in terrorism only serves to show the effectiveness of the Coalition in forcing the extremists to their last extremity.
Posted by Ed Morrissey on March 21, 2007 4:24 AM | Comments (10) | TrackBacks (4)
Comments (10)
Posted by Yankinwaoz![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.captainsquartersblog.com/mt/nav-commenters.gif)
| March 21, 2007 4:46 AM
I don't want to sound like an apologist for the "insurgents" (terrorist). But my gut screams "propaganda" when I read this news on your blog and others.
I can't help but remember when Iraq invaded Kuwait and there was Congressional testimony from a tearful Kuwaiti woman who claimed that she witnessed Iraqi solders pulling the plugs off of the incubators for premature babies at the hospital.
Turns out it was all BS. She lied. She made it up, or was given a script. It was propaganda designed to outrage the US into a military response.
Part of me wishes that these scumbags would do these things, and that the Iraqis would believe it, and revolt over it. But I suspect that the Iraqis too will simply feel it is nothing but US propaganda.
Posted by stackja1945![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.captainsquartersblog.com/mt/nav-commenters.gif)
| March 21, 2007 5:34 AM
Hitler and Tojo used children. That was not US propaganda. AQ and PLO use children. If this is all US propaganda what makes the Iraqi people vote in the face of AQ threats?
Posted by brainy435![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.captainsquartersblog.com/mt/nav-commenters.gif)
| March 21, 2007 7:50 AM
My little brother, a Marine, just got back from a tour in Iraq. He told me there were occasions where the terrorists would gather a bunch of children, give them toy guns and have them run towards checkpoints yelling and screaming. Aparently they wanted to draw the Marines into shooting children for propoganda.
Posted by rbj![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.captainsquartersblog.com/mt/nav-commenters.gif)
| March 21, 2007 8:10 AM
Yankinwaoz, Hamas also uses kids as suicide bombers. It's a pathology in the ME.
Posted by Cousin Dave![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.captainsquartersblog.com/mt/nav-commenters.gif)
| March 21, 2007 8:44 AM
I saw a report on this on the local news (from a network feed) this morning. There was one detail that was different: this report said that the adults got out of the car before it blew up, leaving the children to die. If true, it has to be the ultimate in cowardice.
Posted by mindnumbrobot![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.captainsquartersblog.com/mt/nav-commenters.gif)
| March 21, 2007 9:08 AM
Disgusting, but none of us should be surprised. It is a pathology in the Middle East and the only question is whether the children were forceably taken or freely offered by the parents for martyrdom.
Posted by Lew![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.captainsquartersblog.com/mt/nav-commenters.gif)
| March 21, 2007 9:57 AM
This is the kind of thing that comes about in a society that envisions its women and children as adored pets at best, and as livestock at worst.
As in our own ancient history, when daughters were bargained away like poker chips in endless games of dynastic social-climbing and people of other races could be owned like cattle. Its simple barbarism. A throwback to a dark age most of us live our soft-edged lives in blissful ignorance of. Like cannabalism, it rests in a past so vastly distant from us now, that we can't imagine anything so foul. And yet, its all back there somewhere for all of us.
The problem now is that all of this stuff is still here in the Middle East and we're going to have to deal with it whether we like it or not. Its like pumping out the septic tank in your back yard; its unspeakably foul but the longer you procrastinate it the worse it gets!
Posted by semperfi333![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.captainsquartersblog.com/mt/nav-commenters.gif)
| March 21, 2007 11:52 AM
Captain Ed, I check in with your site every day, and am particularly impressed with your attention to detail and the way you carefully lay out your arguments. Sounds kind of nickpicky, I know, but I'm kind of surprised that you would fall into the same trap on this post as the mainstream media has been all along . "New" tactic? This kind, and many other kinds of atrocities and obscenities have been being committed by our enemies for years. Ask any Marine in Falluja, and many other places in Iraq. The enemy has been using women and children as shields, strapping bombs to donkeys and dogs, even strapping bombs to retarded children, now they use two children to get through a checkpoint and blow them up and the media thinks this is a new tactic?
Nothing new here at all. Maybe what is new, or will be new, is a lot more people here starting to open up their eyes to exactly what kind of monsters and animals we're up against.
Posted by Fausta![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.captainsquartersblog.com/mt/nav-commenters.gif)
| March 21, 2007 1:04 PM
New tactic? Or plain old depravity?
Posted by Only_One_Cannoli![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.captainsquartersblog.com/mt/nav-commenters.gif)
| March 21, 2007 2:06 PM
It's disgusting.
This enemy isn't above using any tactic. The chlorine attacks maybe haven't worked as well as they'd hoped. I have no doubt they'd use dirty bombs if they could find some radioactive medical waste. ... wondering if Baghdad's water supply is vulnerable to poisoning.
I wouldn't put it past aqi to try to completely disrupt life in Baghdad - especially if they believe they can't win in Iraq.