Kabul (BNA) Human Rights Watch says Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) has been recruiting Afghan immigrant children living in Iran to fight in the conflict in Syria. “Iran should immediately end the recruitment of child soldiers and bring back any Afghan children it has sent to fight in Syria,” Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch, said in the statement. Human Rights Watch said a review photos of tombstones in Iranian cemeteries identified eight Afghan children who apparently fought and died in Syria. Human Rights Watch has previously documented cases of Afghan refugees in Iran who “volunteered” to fight in Syria in the hopes of gaining legal status for their families. Under international law, recruiting children under the age of 15 to participate actively in hostilities is a war crime.

Source: GNN Liberia October 01, 2017 11:03 UTC