Obama Aiding Syrian Children To Fire Mortars, Behead, Snipe (Video)

Opposition forces in Syria supported by Western powers and Qatar are using young children in combat roles, including as mortar crews, a war crime, according to Human Rights Investigations (HRI) on Saturday. One child was used to behead a prisoner.

“The use of children to fire mortars is a war crime,” said HRI in a written statement. ”It poses great danger to the children involved as mortar crews are supposed to be trained in their safe use and there is a good chance they will be killed in retaliatory artillery strikes.

“Mortars can be unsafe even in trained hands, as was highlighted in a recent incident in which seven US marines were reportedly killed in Nevada whilst training with mortars and there are documented incidents of Syrian rebel mortars misfiring and ‘cooking off’, where the mortar explodes in the tube, often killing all those around.”

HRI provided the video below, saying it shows Alwiya Ahfad al-Rasoul (Brigades of the Descendants of the Prophet) aka ’Alwiya Ahfaad ar-Rasool,’ in Mount Zāwiya using children as mortar men.

“They say it in the video, they use their logo and the video is linked to by the Ahfad al-Rasoul web site,” HRI stated.

HRI has been documenting widespread use of children as combatants in the Syrian conflict and it has been supplying information to the United Nations.

“Instances we have highlighted include the use of a child to behead a prisoner,” HRI said.

In July, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, Ms. Leila Zerrougui, initiated contacts with Free Syrian Army commanders operating in Rif Damascus and Homs to raise the issue of the recruitment and use of children,” HRI reports. “However, recently the number of instances of use of children in combat roles shown on videos uploaded to opposition channels has increased significantly.

“The video of children using mortars also adds credibility to a recent Syrian TV interview of a 13-year old sniper, also allegedly recruited by Alwiya Ahfad al-Rasoul.”

To enable human rights and not war, see and support Human Rights Investigations.