Lion Cubs

The Lion Cubs, also known as Ashbal, are child soldiers in the Middle East.

Lion Cubs – Al Qaeda

The Ashbal Al Qaeda Lion Cubs of Al Qaeda have appeared in Morocco, Iraq, and places in between.[1]

Lion Cubs – Saddam Hussein

Since 1991, Saddam Hussein's Ashbal child soldiers in Iraq employed training techniques intended to desensitize the youth to violence, including frequent beatings and deliberate cruelty to animals. The exact numbers of the Ashbal Saddam were not known, but there were an estimated 8,000 members in Baghdad alone.[2] The boys are ages 10-15 years old. After they reach 16 they move on to the Fedayeen Saddam.[3]

Lion Cubs – Lebanon

Ashbal in Lebanon since spring 1969 have been led by Palestinian Arab leaders like Yasser Arafat, A. Shukairy and George Habash, who initially dubbed them 'baby tigers' and were active in the 1970s and 1980s.[4] Some were as young as eight years of age.[5]

The boys were taught to dismantle, clean and reassemble rifles, pistols and machine guns and are allowed to fire live ammunition. They underwent a Mau Mau-like hardening course in which each boy was required to tear apart a live chicken to develop a lust for killing.[6][7] Chants which these children, termed 'junior terrorists', had to learn and repeat included: "Oh Zionists, do you think you are safe? Drinking blood is the habit of our men" and "We are from Fatah! We have come to kill you all!"[8]

Lion Cubs – ISIS

The Cubs of the Caliphate is a programme by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant to recruit and train child soldiers between the ages of 10 and 15.[9]

References

Philip Seib, Dana M. Janbek: Global Terrorism and New Media: The Post-Al Qaeda Generation, 2010 p.6
Peter W. Singer: Facing Saddam’s Child Soldiers. Tuesday, January 14, 2003. Brookings Institution Iraq has also organized several child soldier units. Some of these units fall under the rubric of the Futuwah (Youth Vanguard) movement, a Ba’ath party organ formed in the late 1970s and aimed at establishing a paramilitary organization among children at secondary school level. In this regime-run program, children as young as 12 are organized into units and receive military training and political indoctrination. Units of this force were even pressed into service during the nadir of Iraqi fortunes in the war against Iran (in the mid-1980s). The most important Iraqi child soldier units, though, are the Ashbal Saddam (Saddam Lion Cubs). This is a more recent organization, formed after the defeat in the 1991 Gulf War, when the regime’s hold on power faltered. The Ashbal Saddam involve boys between the ages of 10 and 15, who attend military training camps and learn the use of small arms and infantry tactics. The camps involve as much as 14 hours per day of military training and political indoctrination. They also employ training techniques intended to desensitize the youth to violence, including frequent beatings and deliberate cruelty to animals. The exact numbers of the Ashbal Saddam are not known, but there are an estimated 8,000 members in Baghdad alone.
"Facing Saddam's Child Soldiers". Brookings Institution. January 14, 2003.
Arab Commando Attacks. By Henry J Taylor. Lewiston Evening Journal, Apr 28, 1969, 3 Daily Press from Newport News, Virginia, April 28, 1969, p.11 Baby Tigers - The State Department finds that such leaders as Arafat, Shukairy and Habeche talk of "fighting for 20 or so years." They even have training camps for 12-year-old youths, a expanding cadre called Baby Tigers.
Newsweek - Volume 74, Issues 18-26 - Page 42 - 1969 When Al Fatah opened training camps for 8- to 15-year-old "Lion Cubs" last spring, the response was immediate. Now, on playgrounds of Palestinian refugee camps, Yasir Arafat's young lions— many of them dressed in cut-down combat ...
John Laffin, Fedayeen; the Arab-Israeli Dilemma, Free Press, 1973 pp.96-97
Arms Control and Disarmament: A Quarterly Bibliography with Abstracts and Annotations, Volume 6. Library of Congress. Arms Control and Disarmament Bibliography. 1969, p.420 ...one unit, the Lion Cubs, for boys ten to fourteen, instills a blood lust by making recruits tear live chickens apart
Keith Campbell: Children of the Storm: The Abuse of Children for the Promotion of the Revolution, Lone Tree Publications, 1987,p.6
Horgan, John; Bloom, Mia (8 July 2015). "This Is How the Islamic State Manufactures Child Militants". VICE News. Vice Media. Retrieved 28 November 2019.

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[1] Philip Seib, Dana M. Janbek: Global Terrorism and New Media: The Post-Al Qaeda Generation, 2010 p.6

[2] Peter W. Singer: Facing Saddam’s Child Soldiers. Tuesday, January 14, 2003. Brookings Institution Iraq has also organized several child soldier units. Some of these units fall under the rubric of the Futuwah (Youth Vanguard) movement, a Ba’ath party organ formed in the late 1970s and aimed at establishing a paramilitary organization among children at secondary school level. In this regime-run program, children as young as 12 are organized into units and receive military training and political indoctrination. Units of this force were even pressed into service during the nadir of Iraqi fortunes in the war against Iran (in the mid-1980s). The most important Iraqi child soldier units, though, are the Ashbal Saddam (Saddam Lion Cubs). This is a more recent organization, formed after the defeat in the 1991 Gulf War, when the regime’s hold on power faltered. The Ashbal Saddam involve boys between the ages of 10 and 15, who attend military training camps and learn the use of small arms and infantry tactics. The camps involve as much as 14 hours per day of military training and political indoctrination. They also employ training techniques intended to desensitize the youth to violence, including frequent beatings and deliberate cruelty to animals. The exact numbers of the Ashbal Saddam are not known, but there are an estimated 8,000 members in Baghdad alone.

[3] "Facing Saddam's Child Soldiers". Brookings Institution. January 14, 2003.

[4] Arab Commando Attacks. By Henry J Taylor. Lewiston Evening Journal, Apr 28, 1969, 3 Daily Press from Newport News, Virginia, April 28, 1969, p.11 Baby Tigers - The State Department finds that such leaders as Arafat, Shukairy and Habeche talk of "fighting for 20 or so years." They even have training camps for 12-year-old youths, a expanding cadre called Baby Tigers.

[5] Newsweek - Volume 74, Issues 18-26 - Page 42 - 1969 When Al Fatah opened training camps for 8- to 15-year-old "Lion Cubs" last spring, the response was immediate. Now, on playgrounds of Palestinian refugee camps, Yasir Arafat's young lions— many of them dressed in cut-down combat ...

[6] John Laffin, Fedayeen; the Arab-Israeli Dilemma, Free Press, 1973 pp.96-97

[7] Arms Control and Disarmament: A Quarterly Bibliography with Abstracts and Annotations, Volume 6. Library of Congress. Arms Control and Disarmament Bibliography. 1969, p.420 ...one unit, the Lion Cubs, for boys ten to fourteen, instills a blood lust by making recruits tear live chickens apart

[8] Keith Campbell: Children of the Storm: The Abuse of Children for the Promotion of the Revolution, Lone Tree Publications, 1987,p.6

[9] Horgan, John; Bloom, Mia (8 July 2015). "This Is How the Islamic State Manufactures Child Militants". VICE News. Vice Media. Retrieved 28 November 2019.