BAGHDAD — Teenagers armed with grenades and suicide vests are the latest recruits for Sunni insurgents trying to find 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 robes.
Now, they appear to be using youths and weapons that are easier to hide, such as 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 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.”
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 thought 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.
