The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) is reportedly recruiting children as young as 12 for security roles, as the Israeli-US war on Iran continues, Human Rights Watch has reported. The IRGC's 'Homeland Defending Combatants for Iran' Division had reportedly lowered the recruitment age to 12, something that is a grave violation of children’s rights and viewed as a war crime under international law, HRW reported.
The drive also breaks Iranian law, which prohibits the recruitment of children in the armed forces aged under-15.
Tehran has sought to mobilise thousands of recruits after Israel and the US launched an unprovoked war on the country, with leading figures killed in a wave of assassination campaigns.
Children are now being encouraged to sign up for service with the armed forces, which have been hit by a month of Israeli and US strikes on military positions across the country.
This includes manning checkpoints, operational patrols, intelligence patrols, and vehicle convoys, as well as support roles such as cooking and medical care.
The rights group said that recruitment posters had been seen in an Iranian news agency, showing a boy and a girl with two adults, one in military uniform. Rahim Nadali, an IRGC official, told Iran’s Defa Press News Agency that it was seeking recruits to fill these roles, which would put children in danger, given Israel and the US's targeting of civilian and military facilities .
“[In relation to] intelligence and operational patrols, teenagers and the youth repeatedly have come and said that they want to take part in them," Nadali said.
"For the Basij checkpoints that you see across cities now, we have had many young people and teenagers demanding to be present in them. Given the ages that were making demands, we have set the [minimum] age at 12. Meaning now there are kids of 12 and 13 who want to be present in this space."
He added that potential recruits could sign up for service at Tehran mosques hosting the Basij recruitment drive, but HRW said such locations and other IRGC facilities have been heavily targeted during the war, putting children's lives in danger.
"There is no excuse for a military recruitment drive that targets children to sign up, much less 12-year-olds," said Bill Van Esveld, associate children’s rights director at Human Rights Watch.
"What this boils down to is that Iranian authorities are apparently willing to risk children’s lives for some extra manpower."
Israel and the US have been accused of killing hundreds of children in the war, including the bombing of a school in Minab on the opening day of the war, which killed at least 160 children and teachers.
There have been multiple reports and sightings of children already serving in the Iranian military, including the killing of an 11-year-old boy who was reportedly manning a checkpoint, according to the BBC . The New Arab could not confirm the reports.