Teenagers start filling ranks as rebel losses soar (Syria)

Japan Times ^ | 09/013/2013 | Japan Times

[TexGrill]

MAFRAQ, JORDAN – Just 16 years old, Mohammed Hamad was heading to war.

The lanky Syrian teenager was joining what United Nations officials warn might be the start of a flood of underage fighters enlisting in rebel ranks. About half of the 200 new recruits who board buses each week to Syria from Jordan’s sprawling Zaatari refugee camp are under 18, U.N. officials at the camp estimate.

Hamad said it was his duty to “fight in the name of God to take back the country” from government forces.

“If my generation doesn’t take up arms, the revolution will be lost,” he said, shortly before boarding a bus for the border on a three-day journey to join rebel forces on the outskirts of his home village in southern Syria.

The flow of fresh troops has helped the Free Syrian Army (FSA) replenish ranks diminished by a series of recent losses.

But it also has prompted unease from U.N. officials, who in an internal report last month warned of growing “recruitment by armed groups, including of underage refugees” in Zaatari and across the region, indicating rebels may no longer be honoring a pledge to bar fighters younger than 17.

“We are concerned by reports that some groups may be attempting to use Zaatari as a recruitment center, and we are doing everything in our power to make sure it stays a refugee camp and not a military camp,” said Andrew Harper, the U.N. refugee agency’s representative in Jordan.

[TexGrill]

It reminds me of a John Wayne movie where little kids wanted to fight against adult males. The adult soldiers didn't shoot them, they just gave them spankings.

[VerySadAmerican]

I’m glad the UN thinks this is as important as the Trayvon Martin killing.

[FreeAtlanta]

A 16 year old with an Ak or a suicide belt isn’t a kid and needs something more lethal than a spanking.

[TexGrill]

I would agree too, but soon those teenagers will die off and they really will get replaced by 10-year-olds

[Domangart]

Real life D Day, they shot the youth dead.

[MasterGunner01]

The more dead Muslims, especially younger ones, means the less breeding of replacement fighters. This is a positive because it impacts the Jihad base.

[Michael.SF.]

Teenagers start filling ranks as rebel losses soar

Breaking news from 1864?

[Finny]

The last time our own young men were being fed to the maw of war for the very preservation of America, was WW2. Today, that maw would be eating young women as well, in a military weakened by the presence of women in close combat and quarters. An all-male young man force will kick the ass of an "army" that was half girls. And frankly, expecting men on submarines to execute those duties while having to accommodate females on board, is blatantly disrespectful of men at best, and plain sabotage at worst.

God help us.

[dfwgator]

It reminds me of a John Wayne movie where little kids wanted to fight against adult males.

[Nervous Tick]

>> Hamad said it was his duty to “fight in the name of God to take back the country” from government forces.

What do you want to bet he said “fight in the name of Allah” and the reporter whitewashed it?

Allah is NOT GOD. Allah is a figment of man’s imagination and his “prophet” Mohammed is a murderous pedophile (piss be upon him).

[2banana]

obama and McCain now supporting child soldiers...