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A10 WORLD NEWS
Thursday 20 december 2018
Children fight, kill and die in Yemen's civil war

By MAGGIE MICHAEL A 13-year-old named Ri-
Associated Press yadh said half of the fight-
MARIB, Yemen (AP) — At ers with him on the front
the age of 13, Mohammed lines were children. He
was an unflinching fighter said he and his 11-year-
for Yemen's Houthi reb- old brother once shot and
els. Indoctrinated in their killed two enemy soldiers
camps, he went into battle who refused to lay down
even as gunfire filled the air their weapons. More often,
and the earth shook from he said, he closed his eyes
airstrikes. He says he tor- tightly out of fear when he
tured and killed. He didn't fired his rifle.
care if he lived or died. The most frightening mo-
His one comfort was the se- ment came when his broth-
rial number on the brace- er disappeared during a
let the Houthis gave him to firefight.
wear — his "jihadi number." He began turning over
If he died, he knew, the corpses on the battlefield,
bracelet guaranteed his searching bloodied faces
body would make it home for his lost brother, when
to his family. he and other fighters came
"When I become a martyr, under fire. They fired back.
they enter my number in Then, after some yelling
the computer, retrieve my back and forth, he realized
picture and my name, then the shooter was his brother,
print them with the name lost in the fog of battle.
'Martyr' underneath," Mo- A 12-year-old named Kah-
hammed said. lan said Houthi militiamen
Mohammed was among took him and 10 of his
18 former child soldiers in- classmates from school,
terviewed by The Associ- promising them new book
ated Press who described bags. Instead, they found
the Houthis' efficiency in themselves inside a training
recruiting boys as young as Kahlan, a 12-year-old former child soldier, demonstrates how to use a weapon, at a camp for dis- camp, still in their school
10 to fight in the war against placed persons where he took shelter with his family, in Marib, Yemen in this July 27, 2018 photo. uniforms.
a military coalition led by Associated Press On the front lines, Kahlan
Saudi Arabia and backed recalled the trucks rum-
by the United States. that the military has issued from Saudi Arabia, which have succumbed to West- bling in to collect the dead
The Houthis have inducted orders to send home chil- formed the coalition with ern influence. after coalition airstrikes.
18,000 child soldiers into dren trying to join its ranks. U.S. backing, determined Next, the recruits are sent "The sight of the bodies
their army since the begin- He said any children who to stop what they saw as to military training camps, was scary," he said, using
ning of the war in 2014, a try to enlist do so out of an- an Iranian move to take and then to war. his hands to pantomime
senior Houthi military offi- ger at coalition atrocities. over, turning a civil war into "When you get out of the how corpses were missing
cial acknowledged to The He dismissed the accounts a proxy war. culture center, you don't heads or limbs or had their
Associated Press. He spoke the children gave to the Young soldiers can be seen want to go home any- intestines oozing out.
on condition of anonymity AP, saying their claims were manning checkpoints, AK- more," Mohammed said. The Marib rehabilitation
due to the sensitivity of the coalition propaganda. 47s dangling from their nar- "You want to go to jihad." center has treated nearly
information. The AP interviewed the row shoulders. Others are Mohammed recalled 200 boys since September
That figure is higher than former child soldiers at dis- sent to the front lines as foot how one day his com- 2017. They suffer from ag-
any number previously re- placement camps and a soldiers. rades fighting in the city of gressive behavior, panic
ported. The United Nations Saudi-funded rehabilitation Some of the children told Taiz captured a coalition attacks and attention
was able to verify 2,721 center in the city of Marib, the AP they joined the fighter and brought him deficits. Naguib al-Saadi,
children recruited to fight which is controlled by the rebels willingly, mainly be- to a bombed-out restau- founder of the organization
for all sides in the conflict, coalition. They came to cause of promises of mon- rant. Mohammed, 14 at that launched the center,
the large majority for the Marib after slipping away ey or the chance to carry the time, said he hooked said the real problem will
Houthis, but officials say from rebel forces or being a weapon or to have a an electrical generator up be felt in 10 years — "when
that count is likely low. captured by coalition units. guaranteed allotment of to the prisoner and sent a generation that has been
An unknown number of Because of their ages and qat, the leaves that Ye- shocks through the man's brainwashed with hatred
young fighters have been because some acknowl- menis chew as a stimulant. body as his commander in- and enmity toward the
sent home in coffins. More edge committing acts of But others described being terrogated the captive. West comes of age."q
than 6,000 children have brutality, the AP is only us- abducted from schools or Finally, his commander
died or been maimed in ing their first names. homes or coerced into join- gave this order: "Get rid of
the war, the U.N. children's The war began after the ing in exchange for a fam- him." Mohammed said he
agency reported in Octo- Houthis, a Zaidi-Shiite insur- ily member's release from took a heavy metal tool,
ber, but it could not deter- gent movement with ties detention. heated it in a flame, then
mine how many were com- to Iran, swept down from Recruits are taken first to swung it, caving in the
batants. the northern highlands "culture centers" for nearly back of the man's head.
Brig. Gen. Yahia Sarie, a in late 2014, seizing the a month of religious cours- "He was my master," Mo-
Houthi military spokesman, capital, Sanaa, and then es. The children are told hammed said of his com-
denied that children un- pushing south. Yemen's they are joining a holy war mander. "If he says kill, I
der 18 are systematically internationally-recognized against Jews and Christians would kill.... I would blow up
recruited and told the AP government sought help and Arab countries that myself for him."