Recruiting Terror: al-Qaeda is recruiting children

Posted by Jim Stroud

April 9, 2006

The most chilling footage in a new al-Qaeda video comes near the end of the hour-long extravaganza of bomb blasts, sheep-slaying, and maimed Americans. It shows hooded militants at work in a primary school class in the Iraqi city of Ramadi. Children are asked to sing jihadi songs, quizzed on what they think of America and rewarded with pens, rulers and erasers. The video, of which Adnkronos International (AKI) has obtained a copy, is the work of Ansar al-Sunna, part of the galaxy of Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, and seeks to show the extent of militants’ control in the restive al-Anbar province.

The video, shot in high resolution and professionally edited, is a collage of various propaganda excerpts, linked together by a presenter, wearing a balaclava, who gives his name as Abu Suleiman al-Ruwi, and says he belongs to the media division of Ansar al-Sunna.

Ansar al-Sunna, or Army of the Protectors of the Sunna [which refers to the collective teachings of the Prophet Muhammad], is a Sunni extremist group said to be linked to al-Qaeda and Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. It has claimed responsibility for a number of deadly attacks and kidnappings in Iraq.

Children have appeared only on rare occasions in video propaganda material by al-Qaeda and its affiliates and this video is unprecedented in its use of children.

READ: TERRORISM: AL-QAEDA TAKES PROPAGANDA WAR TO SCHOOLS

TAG: terror,al qaeda,Terrorism, War on Terror, recruiting