Killing children in Afghanistan is now
legitimate says US army
The US military is facing fresh
questions over its targeting policy in
Afghanistan after a senior army officer
suggested that troops were on the lookout
for "children with potential hostile
intent".In comments which legal experts
and campaigners described as "deeply
troubling", army Lt Col Marion Carrington
told the Marine Corp Times that children,
as well as "military-age males", had been
identified as a potential threat because
some were being used by the Taliban to
assist in attacks against Afghan and
coalition forces."It kind of opens our
aperture," said Carrington, whose unit, 1st
Battalion, 508th Parachute Infantry
Regiment, was assisting the Afghan police.
"In addition to looking for military-age
males, it's looking for children with
potential hostile intent."
In the article, headlined "Some Afghan kids
aren't bystanders" , Carrington referred to a case this year in which the Afghan national
police in Kandahar province said they found
children helping insurgents by carrying soda
bottles full of potassium chlorate.The piece
also quoted an unnamed marine corps
official who questioned the "innocence" of
Afghan children, particularly three who were
killed in a US rocket strike in October. Last
month, the New York Times quoted local
officials who said Borjan, 12, Sardar Wali,
10, and Khan Bibi, eight, from Helmand's
Nawa district had been killed while
gathering dung for fuel.
However, the US official claimed that,
before they called for the strike on
suspected insurgents planting improvised
explosive devices, marines had seen the
children digging a hole in a dirt road and
that "the Taliban may have recruited the
children to carry out the mission".Last
year, Human Rights Watch reported a sharp
increase in the Taliban's deployment of
children in suicide bombings, some as
young as seven.
But the apparent widening of the US
military's already controversial targeting
policy has alarmed human rights lawyers
and campaigners.Amos Guiora, a law
professor at the University of Utah
specialising in counter-terrorism, said
Carrington's remarks reflected the shifting
definitions of legitimate military targets
within the Obama administration.
Guiora, who spent years in the Israel
Defence Forces, including time as a legal
adviser in the Gaza Strip, said: "I have great
respect for people who put themselves in
harm's way. Carrington is probably a great
guy, but he is articulating a deeply
troubling policy adopted by the Obama
administration.
"The decision about who you consider a
legitimate target is less defined by your
conduct than the conduct of the people or
category of people which you are assigned
to belong to … That is beyond troubling. It
is also illegal and immoral."Guiora added:
"If you are looking to create a paradigm
where you increase the 'aperture' – that
scares me. It doesn't work, operationally,
morally or practically."Guiora cited
comments made by John Brennan, the
White House counter-terrorism chief, in
April, in which he "talked about flexible
definitions of imminent threat."
Pardiss Kebriaei, senior attorney of the
Center for Constitutional Rights and a
specialist in targeted killings, said she was
concerned over what seemed to be an
attempt to justify the killing of children.
Kebriaei said: "This is one official quoted.
I don't know if that standard is
what they are using but the standard itself
is troubling."
The US is already facing criticism for using
the term term "military-aged male" to
justify targeted killings where the identities
of individuals are not known. Under the US
definition , all fighting-age males killed in
drone strikes are regarded as combatants
and not civilians, unless there is explicit
evidence to the contrary. This has the effect
of significantly reducing the official tally of
civilian deaths.
Kebriael said the definition was reportedly
being used in Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen.
"Under the rules of law you can only target
civilians if they are directly participating in
hostilities. So, here, this standard of
presuming any military aged males in the
vicinity of a war zone are militants, already
goes beyond what the law allows.
"When you get to the suggestion that
children with potentially hostile intent may
be perceived to be legitimate targets is
deeply troubling and unlawful."
Children in conflict zones have additional
protections under the law.
Kebriael, who is counsel for CCR in a
lawsuit which seeks accountability for the
killing of three American citizens – including
a 16 year old boy – in US drone strikes in
Yemen last year, said that the piece also
raised questions over how those killed in
that incident were counted. "Were they
counted as military-aged males or were
they counted as children with potentially
hostile intent or were they counted as the
innocent bystanders they were?"
In a speech in April setting out the context
for the US programme of targeted killings,
White House counter-terrorism chief John
Brennan spoke about a threshold of
"significant threat', which was widely seen
as introducing a lower criteria than
"imminent threat".
Brennan said : "Even if it is lawful to pursue a specific member of al-Qaida, we ask
ourselves whether that individual's activities
rise to a certain threshold for action, and
whether taking action will, in fact, enhance
our security. For example, when considering
lethal force we ask ourselves whether the
individual poses a significant threat to US
interests. This is absolutely critical, and it
goes to the very essence of why we take
this kind of exceptional action."
An Isaf spokesman, Lt Col Jimmie
Cummings, told the Marine Corp Times that
insurgents continue to use children as
suicide bombers and IED emplacers, even
though Taliban leader Mullah Omar has
ordered them to stop harming civilians.
There have been more than 200 children
killed in Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen by
the CIA and Joint Special Operating
Command, according to the Bureau of
Investigative Journalism.
Well said. 
was once hugging his beloved grandsons, Hasan and Husayn, when Aqrah bin Haabis told him, ‘I have got ten children. So far, I have not kissed any of them.’ Allaah’s Messenger
