Hammer755
04-04-2003, 06:47 PM
Saddam's kid army trained to play dirty (http://www.nydailynews.com/04-03-2003/news/wn_report/story/72391p-67079c.html)
American troops threatened by chemical weapons and suicide bombings face another danger when they reach Baghdad - Saddam Hussein's army of children.
Well-trained, ferocious and 8,000-strong, the Ashbal Saddam - Saddam's Lion Cubs - are waiting in the capital for U.S. forces to arrive, said Peter Singer, a fellow with Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank.
The Cubs are a junior Fedayeen Saddam - the militia directed by the Iraqi dictator's oldest son, Uday - whose fake surrenders and ruthless tactics in southern Iraq surprised U.S. war planners.
"Whatever the Fedayeen has been willing to do, you can extrapolate that these children will do the same," said Singer, author of the forthcoming book "Caution: Children at War."
After the 1991 Persian Gulf War, Saddam's security police began forcing boys as young as 6 from their families and into intensive boot camps. There, they are beaten, forced to kill animals and indoctrinated with Baath Party propaganda.
They emerge about age 10 schooled in the use of small arms and basic infantry tactics, clad in black trousers and shirts bearing the inscription "Ashbal Saddam," said the Paris-based International Federation of Human Rights.
American troops threatened by chemical weapons and suicide bombings face another danger when they reach Baghdad - Saddam Hussein's army of children.
Well-trained, ferocious and 8,000-strong, the Ashbal Saddam - Saddam's Lion Cubs - are waiting in the capital for U.S. forces to arrive, said Peter Singer, a fellow with Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank.
The Cubs are a junior Fedayeen Saddam - the militia directed by the Iraqi dictator's oldest son, Uday - whose fake surrenders and ruthless tactics in southern Iraq surprised U.S. war planners.
"Whatever the Fedayeen has been willing to do, you can extrapolate that these children will do the same," said Singer, author of the forthcoming book "Caution: Children at War."
After the 1991 Persian Gulf War, Saddam's security police began forcing boys as young as 6 from their families and into intensive boot camps. There, they are beaten, forced to kill animals and indoctrinated with Baath Party propaganda.
They emerge about age 10 schooled in the use of small arms and basic infantry tactics, clad in black trousers and shirts bearing the inscription "Ashbal Saddam," said the Paris-based International Federation of Human Rights.