Groomed for Suicide: How Taliban Recruits Children for Mass Murder

Severe poverty, shortcomings in education, restraints on women appearing in public, religious extremism and ongoing war all combine to limit opportunities for children in Afghanistan and Pakistan – and all pose new dangers. Struggling to recruit adults as suicide bombers, the Taliban increasingly turn to desperate teenagers and younger children, reports Jon Boone for the Guardian. Taliban representatives target young boys accused of crimes or desperate for funds, promising rescue and martyrdom. Or the children are tricked into believing they are making an ordinary delivery or won’t be killed themselves after detonating explosives. Mentors who plan mass killings press for jihad and cultivate hatred for American troops. Boone concludes, “It is feared that hundreds of children may have been radicalised and turned into bombers in what Haneef Atmar, Afghanistan's former interior minister, describes as ‘hate madrasas.’” – YaleGlobal