Hezbollah's War Crime: Using Child Soldiers

"Hezbollah mourned last week the death of a teenager killed 'on jihadist duty' in Syria. The party's Al-Manar television reported last Tuesday that 'Hezbollah bid farewell to the mujahid martyr Mashhur Fahd Shamseddine.' Neither Hezbollah nor media outlets associated with the party made any reference to the boy's age. Hezbollah only announced that he had died in a tragic accident while performing his jihadist duty. However, Arabic-language newspapers reported Shamseddine was only 15...

'[S]ources of Hezbollah said that [the boy] died while he was receiving a military training. This raises a question: why are you giving military training to children?'...

They recruit and start training at very young ages-typically at around 10-13 years old, when they join the Imam al-Mahdi Scouts, says 35-year-old Hussein, a former scout...The Imam al-Mahdi Scouts were founded in 1985 and are registered with the Lebanese Ministry of Education."