Urban warfare, as ancient Chinese philosopher Sun Tzu concluded, is the lowest form of warfare. The kind of fighting that coalition forces are likely to face in Baghdad involves complicated command-and-control challenges and presents soldiers and commanders with unparalleled tactical and ethical dilemmas. One such challenge is the Iraqis' use of children as urban guerrilla fighters.
The mobilization of children in armed conflicts and their transformation into killing machines is a worldwide phenomenon.
According to United Nations' estimates, there are more than 300,000 children participating in armed conflicts in places like India, Burma, Paraguay, Philippines and several African countries. In Sierra Leone alone, more than 5,000 children under the age of 18, both boys and girls and some as young as 6, are estimated to have fought in the conflict.
The last Western military to face the perils of children guerrillas was the Israeli army during Operation Defensive Shield in March-April 2002. In the Jenin refugee camp -- a cramped space inhabited by more than 15,000 people -- the Israelis became involved in fierce fighting with hundreds of militants. Many of them were children. Veterans of the battle reported that Palestinian children threatened them just like adult combatants and in some cases proved to be no less lethal than adults.
The Palestinian Islamic Jihad has recruited children as young as 13 for suicide missions. Others have been used to plant and detonate bombs.
American soldiers marching into Baghdad might face a similar challenge.
Iraq has one of the worst records of child participation in warfare.
Children under 18 years old make up about 50% of the country's population and are trained from a very young age to protect and defend the regime.
During the Iran-Iraq war, boys as young as 12 were part of the Iraqi military, and many of them died in suicide missions such as clearing minefields. Since the Gulf War, Saddam Hussein's regime has recruited thousands of Iraqi boys, teaching them to use small arms and brainwashing them with Baathist political indoctrination.
Hussein has also created child-soldier units -- Ashbal Saddam, or Saddam's Lion Cubs.
The Cubs -- the Iraqi equivalent of the Hitler Youth movement -- have trained about 8,000 young men in Baghdad alone who are considered to be well schooled in combat and ferocious.
