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Al Qaeda - Youth of Heaven

Al Qaeda - Youth of Heaven

Robbed of its recruiting pool in urban areas as most of its leaders are dead or behind bars, al Qaeda in Iraq has resorted to the recruitment of women and children as young as eleven years of age. Al Qaeda has been largely driven out from al Anbar province by the Sunni Awakening movement but now it has emerged in the unstable region of Diala, parts of Mosul, and the districts of al Amiriya and al Athimiya in the capital, Baghdad. "Desperate people resort to desperate acts," according to a resident in Mosul who was tasked by tribal leaders to keep an eye on the children in his neighborhood. In a reflection of the terror group's setbacks, al Qaeda has had little choice but to recruit these women and young children through threats, coercion, monetary enticement and kidnapping. In 2006, the terror organization created the al Qaeda Cadets to recruit suicide bombers among young Iraqi boys to compensate for the shortage of foreign fighters. Today, the Dubai-based Al Arabiya channel aired a video showing young Iraqi boys reading their living testaments before carrying out a suicide operation. This new al Qaeda franchise is called "Youth of Heaven".
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