Iran Arms Children in Public Weapons Drills
Iran Regime Trains Children as Child Soldiers in Public Weapons Drills and Propaganda Rallies • Iranian regime is openly training children and teenagers in weapons handling during nighttime street rallies across the country • State media are releasing multiple videos showing kids in IRGC uniforms learning to use guns, reciting “Destroy the enemy” slogans • Latest footage released features young children in military uniforms delivering scripted threats • Amnesty International has warned that recruiting children as young as 12 into the IRGC’s campaign is a war crime • The regime is reviving the same “one-time-use soldiers” tactics used during the Iran-Iraq War, when thousands of children were sent to clear minefields As weapons training takes place during nighttime street rallies across Iran, the regime has simultaneously staged public spectacles featuring children and young teenagers. State-affiliated media outlets — including Fars News Agency (affiliated to the IRGC) and Tasnim News Agency (affiliated with the IRGC’s Qods Force) — have released multiple video clips showing children being taught to handle weapons, interviewed on camera, and made to repeat regime slogans such as “We will destroy the enemy” while praising the IRGC. In some gatherings, children have been fitted with banners reminiscent of the widespread deployment of child soldiers during the eight-year Iran-Iraq War. On 12 April 2026, Amnesty International warned that the recruitment of children as young as 12 into the IRGC’s military campaign constitutes a war crime under international law. One video published by Tasnim from Eslamshahr shows a military parade of three Shahed-136 drones — the same model used extensively in the war in Ukraine — alongside interviews with children repeating the regime’s talking points. Another clip, released in mid-May by the state-run Student News Agency from Shahrekord, depicts Basij forces conducting weapons training in a public area while children are visibly present. Subsequently, Fars News Agency aired footage from Bojnūrd in which military personnel are seen actively training children and teenagers in weapons handling. In on the latest examples, released by Tasnim News Agency, young children dressed in military and IRGC uniforms were filmed imitating regime press conferences and reciting scripted threats related to the ongoing conflict. The regime’s exploitation of children for its political and military objectives is not new. During the Iran-Iraq War under the rule of Khomeini, children were used as “one-time-use soldiers,” including being sent ahead to clear minefields. Mohsen Rezaei, then Commander-in-Chief of the IRGC, explicitly stated the need for such disposable soldiers. Years later, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani — who served eight years as president of the Islamic Republic — acknowledged the scale of these losses. In his Friday prayer sermon in Tehran on 31 October 1997, he said: “The student Basijis who went to the slaughterhouse of the battlefields during the Sacred Defense numbered 36,000 — and that is truly a large figure.” Brigadier General Eskandar Beiranvand, former commander of the 84th Infantry Brigade in Khorramabad, described one such operation involving the “Lovers of Hussein” battalion: “They informed us that the Lovers of Hussein battalion was on its way to clear a minefield. Until that day I had never heard of this battalion and was not familiar with their methods. Within an hour, two Rio vehicles arrived… The young men had not even stepped out of the vehicles when they embraced and kissed one another. It was a strange scene. Everyone started crying because of their intense weeping. We still did not know what these boys were going to do… They lined up beside the minefield, their faces full of tears, staring at the field. The area fell silent and everyone watched them with excitement and anxiety. A young man, about 20 years old, turned to the others and said: ‘May our bodies be torn to pieces for the sake of Agha Ababdullah [Imam Hussein]. All our souls belong to him. Agha is waiting. Do not keep Agha waiting any longer.’ He shouted ‘Ya Hussein!’ and stepped into the minefield. A hellish series of explosions created a wall of fire in front of everyone. Their cries of ‘Ya Hussein’ were lost in the sound of the blasts.” (Islamic Republic newspaper Ettelaat, 27 September 1997) The current wave of public weapons training and the prominent role given to children in ongoing street rallies have heightened concerns about the regime’s renewed use of child soldiers to advance its own objectives.
