Overview
- Amnesty International, which published findings Thursday, said verified photos, videos and eyewitnesses show children carrying rifles at checkpoints and on patrols alongside IRGC and Basij forces.
- An IRGC official set the minimum age at 12 and told volunteers to register at Basij bases in mosques and new booths in city squares, saying teenagers had asked to join to help staff checkpoints.
- Reported duties for young recruits include patrols, checkpoint work, gathering security information, moving supplies and helping with food, medical and relief tasks, which rights groups say place children in direct danger.
- An 11-year-old, Alireza Jafari, was killed at a checkpoint after accompanying his Basij member father, a case his mother linked to a shortage of personnel, highlighting the risks to minors near IRGC operations.
- Under international humanitarian law, recruiting or using under‑15s in hostilities is a war crime, and Amnesty and Human Rights Watch urged Iran to halt the campaign, noting Iran’s past use of minors in the 1980s war with Iraq and reported Afghan child fighters in Syria.