Al-Qaeda uses teens to keep Iraq violence simmering

A skinny 18-year-old who can neither read nor write, Louai Tahseen blames his family for getting him tangled up in al-Qaeda.

"For three years I have been forced to work for al Qaeda. My uncle threatened to kill me if I didn't," he says, hands tied behind his back in his jail cell in Baquba, capital of Iraq's Diyala province.

Initially sent to spy on Iraqi security forces on behalf of the militants, he was later ordered to plant bombs.

He says he participated in nine attacks against Iraqi security forces and allied anti-al-Qaeda militia, using bombs stuck to cars or planted in the street. Al-Qaeda fighters would pay him about $22 for each bomb.

"They told me they would protect me, but their promises were false," he says.

Violence in Iraq has diminished sharply in the past several years from the all-out war of 200607, but al-Qaeda still carries out scores of bomb attacks each month, preventing the country from emerging from conflict once and for all.

The Sunni Islamist group no longer controls swathes of the Iraqi countryside as it once did, and many al Qaeda leaders have been arrested or killed. Security experts say that with so many of their leaders dead or in jail, the fighters are increasingly recruiting teenagers like Louai to carry out attacks.

"This phenomenon is not new, but has increased recently due to the exposure of the identities of al-Qaeda members as a result of mass arrests of al-Qaeda leaders," said retired general Talib al-Zobaie, an Iraqi security expert.

"Al-Qaeda is always changing its plans to prove that they still exist on the ground," he said. "Al-Qaeda has been able to deceive dozens of teenagers with religious radical ideas that attract illiterate teenagers, in addition to the poverty that results from unemployment."

Diyala province, an ethnically and religiously mixed area of wheat fields and canals north of Baghdad, was one of the last places recaptured from al-Qaeda fighters who seized control of Sunni Arab areas after the 2003 US invasion.

The province still sees some of Iraq's worst and most persistent violence, and its criminal justice system is struggling to deal with large numbers of juvenile suspects.

Some 80% of the juveniles in Diyala jails are being held for terrorism and related offences, officials say.

"We have at least 75 juveniles in prison accused of working with terrorist groups," said Police Colonel Hameed al-Aumairi, provincial youth police chief. "Today we received another 51 teenagers from the anti-terrorist department whose investigations are complete and who are now awaiting trial."

Muthana al-Timimi, head of the security committee of the Diyala provincial council, said militants value teenagers and children because they are less likely to arouse suspicion when transporting explosives or planting bombs.

"Recruitment of juveniles by al-Qaeda certainly exists. They use them for ease of escape and not to raise suspicion," he said. "We have captured large numbers of them."

Most attacks are carried out at night. Teenagers are used to transfer bombs and plant them on streets and markets or stick them to the cars of security officials.

"We have arrested five kids in different parts of Diyala, who were placing explosives at night," said Khalid al-Luhaibi, a leader in Diyala of the pro-government, anti-al Qaeda militia, known as the Sahwa.

In the case of Louai, the teenager has confessed to working with al Qaeda. His statement has been approved by an investigating judge, and he is now awaiting a date for trial.

"I'm a victim of my family because most of them are al Qaeda members," he said. "I thought: they're strong, they can protect me as they promised."

"I regret my work with al-Qaeda. I have lost my future. I did not imagine I would end up in prison."