By Anas al-Bar | 2025-09-10

Poor teenagers and young men across the region are falling prey to Iran-backed militias, enticed by false promises and driven into wars that serve Tehran's destructive ambitions, analysts told Al-Fassel.

Once recruited, they are trapped under ruthless armed groups that thrust them into frontline battles, destabilizing their countries and compounding the suffering of their communities.

These children are used as cannon fodder for Iran's regional agenda, in blatant disregard of international laws protecting children's rights.

Iraqi strategy expert Tariq al-Shammari said Iranian proxy groups are flagrantly violating international commitments, including obligations under the United Nations (UN) Convention on the Rights of the Child.

The consequences, he warned, are devastating, producing "a psychologically and socially broken generation" with "no skills beyond carrying a weapon."

Documented exploitation

In 2017, then–Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian praised Yemen's Houthis while sharing an image of an armed child on X.

Iranian officials continued to endorse such practices even as rights groups reported the use of local children in Syria, the analysts said.

Monitors also documented Tehran's enlistment of Afghan boys in the Fatemiyoun Division to fight there, lured by promises of money and residency.

Al-Shammari said many recruits suffer permanent injuries that leave them in poverty.

"Militias do not respect the lives of children or care about their futures," he told Al-Fassel.

"They seek to rob them of their innocence and sacrifice them," he said.

The long-term consequences, he added, extend far beyond individual tragedies. Recruits often become perpetrators of violence.

"Their armed activities and attacks render them outcasts and undermine security, peace and development," he said.

This cycle of unrest and societal fragmentation, he concluded, is "what Iran wants through its ambitious project to dominate the countries and peoples of the region."

Demand for accountability

Mounting concern has spurred Iraqi officials and international representatives to act.

At an official conference on September 2 in Baghdad, they discussed ways to prevent the recruitment of children in armed conflicts.

Human Rights Advisor Zaidan al-Atwani said Iraq has joined 46 countries pledging to renounce violence against children and prohibit their involvement in armed conflicts.

Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, in a statement last month, hailed Iraq's progress and said removal from the UN annual report on child rights violations should serve as "an additional incentive" to strengthen state institutions responsible for protecting minors.

But despite Iraq's progress, accountability remains elusive and essential, the analysts said.

The recruitment of children by Iran-backed militias continues to defy international law and endanger the future of youth and their nations, they added.