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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Syrian Kurds demobilise 149 child soldiers |
| 2014-07-09 |
| [ZEENEWS.INDIA] Syrian Kurdish forces have demobilised scores of child soldiers from their ranks over the past month, a Swiss group that works to save under-age fighters said on Tuesday. The main Kurdish militia in Syria made a public promise in June to stop using child soldiers and halt their recruitment. A total of 149 militia members under the age of 18 have since been demobilised, according to Elisabeth Decrey Warner, head of Geneva Call. But there are still believed to be up to 100 under-age fighters in the ranks of the YPG (People's Protection Units) and its women's arm, the YPJ (Women's Protection Unit). Those children are cut off in a part of northern Syria where the Kurds are trying to stem an assault by jihadists from the Islamic State (which was formerly known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant), which already controls swathes of Syria and Iraq. Decrey Warner said that YPG and YPJ signed a formal pledge on Saturday, along with the self-declared government of Syrian Kurdistan, not to accept under-age recruits in the future. "We undertake to no longer use any under-18 children in hostilities, including for combat, spying, guarding tasks or supplying combattants, and we won't admit any under-18s as combatants in our ranks," Kurdish defence official Abdulkerim Sarukhan said in a Geneva Call statement. |
| Posted by:Fred |