The terrorist organization Hezbollah has begun recruiting children as young as eight to join the Mahdi Scouts, which prepares boys to become armed jihadists when they grow up. The scouts number some 50,000 members ranging in age from 8 to 18 and has branches in areas such as Beirut and south Lebanon, according to the Lebanese newspaper Al-Janubiya (Arabic link).

According to the Lebanese newspaper,

The Mahdi Scouts constitute a main element to the military body of Hezbollah, as the majority of the scouts’ members engage in jihadi work after the age of 16. At this age, the members get into their first military course called ‘combat literacy,’ in which teens recognize the principles knowledge of the weapon, and how to shoot at fixed targets.

They then get intensive summer courses, and after two years, these youngsters graduate as experienced fighters in various types of weapons and are ready to get engaged in the bloodiest battles at the orders of the Secretary General of Hezbollah. All this is in preparation for the real battles when they reach adulthood.

Quoting “well-informed sources,” Shiite journalist Wissam Al Amin wrote last week:

Hezbollah Scout movement started a new branch for the association in Syria in the wake of the Syria crisis. One of the opposition sources said that the Syria branch is organizing activities and exhibitions, and is participating in rallies supporting the regime, and the Information Office of the Scouts Association recently issued new patrol Scouts in Syria under the name “Tawasol.”

The Syria branch of the Mahdi Scouts Association provides children with military training similar to training in military units, as well as instilling religious education, especially in the minds of children through attending religious classes in Shiite mosques, where they are introduced to the Shiite ideology, and where the ideas of revenge and Shiism are implanted in their minds.

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