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Child bomber network uncovered

A US Army soldier walks past children in Mosul, Iraq, on Nov. 17. A raid on an al-Qaeda hideout has turned up evidence of a child bomber training network. PHOTO: AP

A raid on a major al-Qaeda hideout north of Baghdad uncovered evidence of a network of child suicide bombers who have been coerced into launching attacks across Iraq.

A blueprint for the training and recruitment of children was stored on a computer memory stick found on the body of an emir of al-Qaeda in northern Iraq after he was killed in an assault on his underground hideout last month.

Military and intelligence officials believe Abu Ghazwan, the most wanted man in Diyala Province, was responsible for recruiting many children as suicide bombers, including two who detonated themselves last summer.

Data recovered from the raid revealed that Ghazwan was using youth groups to recruit young men in a network that spread as far north as Mosul and to Abu Ghraib, west of Baghdad.

The use of children had been seen as a way to bypass security checks.

US forces have been trying for weeks to disrupt plans to lead children to their deaths. Officials believe the Abu Ghazwan cell developed sleeper cells of children who will be directed by his successors to take part in future attacks.

A girl as young as 13 was the last to explode herself in Diyala. The teenager died in late October, along with five Sons of Iraq officials whom she had targeted.

A boy aged 10 blew himself up in September next to Sheikh Imad Jassem, the joint-leader of the Sons of Iraq in Tarmiya, seriously wounding him. The boy had been stalking him for three days, masquerading as a flower seller across the road from the sheikh’s house.

The child assassin sprinted towards the sheikh as he stepped from his front gate, but tripped on his flip-flops several meters before his target and exploded his bomb prematurely.

The sheikh lost one leg and is recovering in a US hospital.
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