It started as a Fox News exclusive, but as the five video tapes were released to the public, other outlets such as USA Today, AFP, Reuters, etc... are reporting the training of children by al-Qaeda to commit terrorists attacks.
The tapes, obtained by FOX News and later released to the media, are training videos showing black-masked Iraqi children between 6 and 14 being taught how to hold AK-47s, stop a car and carry out a kidnapping, break into a house and break into a courtyard and terrorize the individuals living there.
Footage aired for reporters showed an apparent training operation in which the boys are seen storming a house and holding guns to the heads of mock residents. Another tape showed a young boy wearing a suicide vest and posing with automatic weapons.
Other parts of the tapes reveal these children are also being taught to fire rocket-propelled grenade launchers.
According to Rear Adm. Greg Smith, a spokesman for Multinational Forces-Iraq, "Al Qaeda is clearly using children to exploit other children to get the interest of Jihad spread among teenagers far and wide. They use this footage on the Internet to encourage other young boys to join the jihad movement."
The US Military obtained these tapes in a Dec. 4 raid in Khan Bani Sad, between Baghdad and Baquba and others scenes from these videos show training which included masked boys forcing a man off his bicycle at gunpoint and stopping a car and kidnapping its driver.
Reuters describes other scenes from the videos they were shown:
Videos played to media showed about 20 boys, mostly under 11, wearing balaclavas and brandishing AK-47 assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenade launchers almost as big as themselves.
Reuters also reports that U.S. soldiers also found a written proposal for a movie script about training children for warfare, which included children interrogating and executing victims, planting improvised explosive devices and conducting sniper attacks.
US Commanders say that say al Qaeda is testing different tactics to commit large scale attacks because security clampdowns have hindered al-Qaeda's ability to carry out their attacks in their normal fashion.
Suicide attacks using women, children and the mentally impaired are their new strategy to kill innocent Iraqi's, the latest of which killed 99 people in the deadliest attack in Baghdad for nine months.
You can see the disturbing images of masked children holding guns and being trained at AFP, USA Today, Press TV Iran, and Fox News.
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