Taliban buying children to use as suicide bombers in Pakistan

[JIDinPhilly]

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/as...iref=hpmostpop

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- A top Taliban leader in Pakistan is buying and selling children for suicide bombings, Pakistani and U.S. officials said.


Children are shown at a training camp in this video footage shot by the Taliban.

Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud has been increasingly using the children in attacks, the officials said. A video released by Pakistan's military shows the children training for the task.

In the video of a training camp, children can be seen killing and going through exercises.

Mehsud has been selling the children, once trained, to other Taliban officials for $6,000 to $12,000, Pakistani military officials said. Watch more about the child bombers »

Some of the children are as young as 11, the officials said.

"He has been been admitting he holds a training center for young boys, for preparing them for suicide bombing. So he is on record saying all this, accepting these crimes," said Major General Akhtar Abbas, spokesman for the Pakistani army.


Napolitano praises Pakistan crackdown on Taliban
Pakistan: Suspected U.S. drone attack kills 15
The young suicide bombers may be able to reach targets unnoticed, the military said.

"If he is approaching on foot, there is a possibility he will bypass security," Abbas said.

"In certain areas, there is a possibility in the population centers everyone can not be checked physically, so he can create havoc there."

Pakistan has launched an offensive against the Taliban, started in the Swat region of the North West Frontier Province. The Taliban have countered with a spate of suicide bombings, including a July 2 attack in Rawalpindi, in which a suicide bomber on a motorcycle struck a Pakistani Defense Ministry bus. At least one person was killed and 29 others were wounded.

Pakistan's army said it is hunting Mehsud in the hopes that the supply of suicide bombers will dry up after the Taliban leader is captured.

Meanwhile, a suspected U.S. drone attack killed at least 12 people and wounded five others in northwest Pakistan Tuesday, Pakistani officials said.

The missile strikes in South Waziristan targeted a suspected Taliban hideout at a madrassa, or Muslim school, in Zangarah, according to intelligence officials.

The attack near the border with Afghanistan involved a pair of missiles shot from an unmanned drone, local resident Janbaz Mehsud told CNN. He said all the dead and wounded were Taliban.


A local government official, who asked not to be named, said the madrassa was a training center for the Taliban and belongs to Baitullah Mehsud. That official put the death toll at 14, but said the number of dead could rise.

The U.S. military routinely offers no comment on reported drone attacks. However, the United States is the only country operating in the region known to have the ability to launch missiles from drones, which are controlled remotely.

[PocketProtector]

That is beyond sick. O...let's make friends.

[JIDinPhilly]

How do we fight an enemy that buys children and straps explosives to said child?

[headcase]

How do we fight an enemy that buys children and straps explosives to said child?

You kill them, their kids, their pets, their friends. You irradiate their farmland, their water supply, and their air.

Your real question should have been, "How do we fight a humane series of battles against an inhumane opponent.", and the answer would have been, "Just exactly the way we are now, in every theater we are involved in.".

[Caeser2001]

If this and 9/11 doesn't make a case to soldier on in Afghanistan to the liberals then nothing will.

I can't even count how many letters I have read in the paper in the last couple months stating we need to leave Afghanistan and there's no point to the war in Afghanistan, that we need to pack up and leave.

[camper]

If this and 9/11 doesn't make a case to soldier on in Afghanistan to the liberals then nothing will.

I can't even count how many letters I have read in the paper in the last couple months stating we need to leave Afghanistan and there's no point to the war in Afghanistan, that we need to pack up and leave.

The liberal mindset is "If we remove the soldiers, the taliban will stop using kids as bombs against our soldiers...Think of the lives saved!"

Same exact reasoning as to why they believe banning all guns will make criminals behave.

Personally, I say fuck the taliban. And I LOATHE using that dirty word.

camper