Bombing for Food

Conservatives, Repugnicans, and other stupid people will blame the Iraqi's for this problem. Of course, the problem is caused by those who perpetrated the war.

IRAQ: Poverty drives children to work for armed groups
10 May 2007 14:58:33 GMT
Source: IRIN

BAGHDAD, 10 May 2007 (IRIN) - Eleven-year-old Seif Abdul-Rafiz and his two brothers were left with no choice but to leave school and work so as to help their unemployed parents make ends meet.

Unable to find a job, Seif resorted to making bombs for Sunni insurgents who are fighting US troops in Iraq.

"We work about eight hours a day and are supervised by two men. They give us food and at the end of the day we get paid for our work. Sometimes we get US $7 and sometimes we get $10, depending on how many bombs we make," Abdul-Rafiz said.

"The bombs are used to fight American soldiers. I was really afraid in the beginning but then my parents told me that it was for two good causes: the first is to help our family eat; and the second is to fight occupation forces," he added.

Thousands of poor children in Iraq are forced to work to help their families. Many of them work in one way or another for a variety of armed groups that operate in the war-torncountry.

"If I had choice, I would have preferred to be in a classroom but we need to eat. In the beginning, they were very kind with us but later they started to threaten us, saying that if we leave our work they would kill our family," Abdul-Rafiz said.

According to NGO the Iraq Aid Association (IAA), reports from Anbar province and two mainly Sunni neighbourhoods of the capital show that children from poor families are helping insurgents make bombs.

"They are in direct contact with dangerous chemicals which when wrongly handled can result in their death. We have secure information that at least three children have died making bombs," Fatah Ahmed, IAA spokesman, said.

But Abdul-Rafiz said that hunger was worse than anything.

"My mother cries every day we go out to make bombs but my dad prays for us and tells us to go because he cannot find a job. And the insurgents don't let him work with them because he was injured in an attack a year ago and they consider him useless," he said.

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