Iraq News
Human Rights

Deaths expose Tahrir al-Sham child recruitment

By Waleed Abu al-Khair in Cairo

Anas al-Hussari, a teenager from Maaret al-Numan, was killed in the battles of eastern rural Hama on October 28th. [Photo courtesy of Musab Assaf]

Anas al-Hussari, a teenager from Maaret al-Numan, was killed in the battles of eastern rural Hama on October 28th. [Photo courtesy of Musab Assaf]

Tahrir al-Sham, an extremist alliance dominated by the former al-Nusra Front (ANF), has been recruiting children and young teenagers in the Syrian provinces of Idlib and Hama to fight in its ranks, a local activist told Diyaruna.

The alliance has been recruiting children in large numbers, he said, but has tried to keep their recruitment and service quiet, though the recent death of a large number of them has brought the matter out into the open.

"Tahrir al-Sham’s recruitment bureau has been agitating for a long time to recruit youth to fight in its ranks," Idlib media activist Musab Assaf told Diyaruna.

The aim was to make up for a shortfall in fighters following the desertion of a large number of its elements and affiliated armed groups, he said.

But the response to recruitment efforts has been very weak, due to the unwillingness of Idlib and Hama residents to fight in Tahrir al-Sham’s ranks, he said, after its continued affiliation with al-Qaeda came to light.

Parents paid to keep quiet

"Under these circumstances, the recruitment bureau had no choice but to recruit children," Assaf said, and it is reported that dozens of them have been recruited.

These are the children of very poor families, he noted, or children who lost their fathers in the Syrian war and have no one to provide for them.

Tahrir al-Sham exploited these circumstances to recruit them, enticing their families with monthly payments of between $50 and $100, he said.

Assaf said the recruitment of children was kept secret, adding that the recruitment bureau warned the families to not say a word about the matter under the pretext that it was necessary for security purposes.

The matter was exposed on a wide scale after the death of a large number of child soldiers in Tahrir al-Sham’s battles against the "Islamic State of Iraq and Syria" (ISIS) and the Syrian regime and its allies in Hama's countryside.

Preliminary estimates indicate at least 10 child soldiers have been killed and a large number of others have been wounded in the battles in eastern rural Hama on October 28th.

Among the dead were Noureddin Basil al-Najjar, 14, of Kafrouma near Idlib city and Anas al-Hussari, 14, of Maaret al-Numan, he said.

The child recruitment campaign focused on rural Idlib and Maaret al-Numan and surrounding areas, where parents now fear for the fate of their children, he said, as Tahrir al-Sham has been refusing to provide any information about them.

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