Caught on camera: The 10-year-old Al Qaeda fanatics ready to launch terror attacks in Iraq

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Weighed down with ammunition belts and guns as big as themselves, these masked boys as young as ten are being trained by Al Qaeda to be its new generation of killers, the U.S. military claimed last night.

The terror group is said to be recruiting Iraqi boys who should be in primary school to carry out assassinations, suicide bombings and kidnappings.

Officials in Baghdad released a video seized during a raid on a suspected Al Qaeda safe-house which showed the children apparently undergoing training.

The images are said to be a propaganda tool designed to recruit more children to the cause.

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Children imitate their terrorist role-models in the video

Even by the standards of the terror network, the pictures are chilling, with black-masked boys - some of whom appeared to be aged about 10 - storming a house and holding guns to the heads of mock captives.

Another tape showed a young boy wearing a suicide vest and posing with automatic weapons while a third contained pictures of masked youngsters forcing a man from a bicycle at gunpoint in an apparent kidnapping.

About 20 boys wearing ski masks are shown carrying rocket propelled grenade launchers - some of which dwarf the youngsters - assault rifles and pistols.

The release of the footage, which was seized last December from a house at Khan Bani Saad, north-east of Baghdad, was further indication that Al Qaeda is increasingly using children and women for its terror operations, the U.S military said.

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Gun-toting youngsters are taught to storm buildings

Iraqi officials say that more and more young boys are being snatched by militias and Al Qaeda as "recruits" suitable for training.

Iraqi Defence Ministry spokesman Mohammed al-Askari gave no details of numbers but said the abductions were taking place "not only to recruit them, but also to demand ransom to fund the operations of Al Qaeda."

Both children and women are able to move more freely through the increasingly effective local and US security checks in major Iraqi cities.

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Masked and tracksuit-wearing children as young as 10 are being recruited by the terrorist organisation

Only last Friday two women with Down's Syndrome wearing remote-controlled explosives carried out a bombing in a busy pet market in Baghdad, killing dozens.

The US said prior to 2007, five women had been responsible for suicide bombings and other attacks across Iraq.

Ten women have carried out attacks since then, and there have been four female suicide bombers already in 2008.

It violates Muslim religious beliefs to use women in fighting.

US military spokesman Rear Admiral Gregory Smith said there was evidence that Osama Bin Laden's representatives had taken the decision to target children.

"Al Qaeda in Iraq wants to poison the next generation of Iraqis," he said, "It is offering children as the new generation of mujahedeen (holy warriors)," he said.

"We believe this video is used as propaganda to send out to recruit other boys ... and to send a broader message across Iraq to indoctrinate youth into Al Qaeda."

He continued: "That is a disturbing trend that obviously shows the desperation that Al Qaeda is currently going through to use whatever means necessary to achieve its ends."

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The trainees carry out a search of a cyclist

Other scenes from the Khan Bani Saad video showed masked boys forcing a man off his bicycle at gunpoint and stopping a car and kidnapping its driver along a dusty country road.

At one point, the boys - wearing soccer jerseys with ammunition slung across their chests - sit in a circle on the floor, chanting slogans in support of Al Qaeda.

 

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