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Iran’s security forces are recruiting children as young as 12 to assist with duties in the capital during the ongoing war, according to a Revolutionary Guards official speaking on state television on Thursday.
Security checkpoints have appeared across Tehran since the start of the conflict, with some residents reporting that teenagers in plain clothes have been seen manning them, sometimes carrying firearms.
Iranian authorities have launched a recruitment campaign called “For Iran” in Tehran aimed at registering volunteers to support security forces. Under the initiative, the minimum age to join has been lowered to 12.
Rahim Nadali, an official with the Revolutionary Guards in Tehran, said young volunteers could help the Guards and the Basij youth militia to stand “against the global bully,” a term Iranian officials often use to refer to the United States.
According to Nadali, tasks for volunteers include gathering security information, conducting patrols and organising nighttime vehicle convoys across the city.
“At the Basij checkpoints and patrols that you see across the cities, we had a very high number of volunteers among young people and teenagers who wanted to participate,” he said on state television.
“Considering the ages of those requesting to join, we have now lowered the minimum age to 12 years old, because children aged 12–13 want to be involved,” he added.
Residents of Tehran speaking to AFP journalists outside the country said they had seen armed youths around the city since hostilities began with the United States and Israel.
One resident, identified as Kaveh, said roads were being blocked by military pickup trucks equipped with heavy weapons while vehicles were searched at checkpoints.
“Military pickup trucks with heavy weapons mounted on them block the roads and search cars. You pass them, and just 100 meters ahead, there are several private cars with teenagers holding Uzis (sub-machine guns), again stopping vehicles,” said Kaveh.
He added that after missile strikes, areas were quickly sealed off, with young armed volunteers directing civilians and occasionally firing warning shots into the air.
“When a missile hits somewhere, the area is immediately sealed off. Untrained teenagers with Kalashnikovs shout orders at people — ‘stand here, stand there'” and regularly fire warning shots into the air, he said.
Another resident said that at night, supporters of the Islamic Republic “take cars fitted with speakerphones and they give them flags and they march with lots of noise and shout slogans in the streets”.
