Click
photo to play
Length: 2:54
ANDERSON COOPER: In Iraq -- in this case we're
talking about terrorists using children. There was an
attack in the capital over the weekend. CNN's Michael
Ware has been investigating this troubling new twist.
He joins me now from Baghdad -- Michael.
MICHAEL WARE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Anderson, what
we have is an American general claims that U.S.
troops allowed a car bomb through a checkpoint
because they saw kids in the backseat.
Now, of course, there's been no confirmation of this
and it's very hard for anyone to know exactly what
went on here. But the use of children as decoys for a
suicide bomber, if that in fact has happened,
obviously is an incredibly heinous thing.
But I mean, we've been seeing children as part of
this war from the beginning. All sides in the fight
here in Iraq have been killing children, either by
dropping bombs on their houses, blowing them up as
part of indiscriminate bombings or now literally
targeting them in the sectarian civil war.
And kids have been part of the insurgency since the
beginning. They're used as spotters, they're used to
do reconnaissance, they're used to plant roadside
bombs, they're used to trigger the bombs.
Indeed, I remember spending time with an 8-year-old
who used to sit there pushing the buttons, trying to
blow up U.S. troops.
So, this is just a nightmare for children from
beginning to end. And this would be just a
particularly heinous, new development to that --
Anderson.
COOPER: Yeah, the idea that insurgents would put
children in a vehicle, ladened with explosives as a
way of getting it through a U.S. checkpoint, it's a
tough thing. How do you fight against that if you're
a soldier, if you're a Marine, what do you do?
WARE: Well, it is. It's almost impossible to fight
against. I mean, it's like the whole concept of
suicide bombing. As many U.S. commanders will say,
the most -- one of the most powerful weapons on a
battlefield is a man willing to die.
Here, they're prepared to sacrifice children up on
the altar of warfare. Now, bear in mind, those behind
these suicide bombings are al Qaeda. This is in
particular al Qaeda in Iraq. And it's hard-line
vision. Much more hard line even than that of Osama
bin Laden.
Now, to these men, anyone involved in the suicide
bombings or any innocents killed in their suicide
bombings are ushered quickly to heaven. They're being
rushed to heaven. So in their kind of perspective for
what it is, they think that they're doing these
people a favor by sending them to God much quicker,
honoring them as martyrs. But to everyone else,
there's absolutely no justification for any kind of
tactic like this whatsoever.
COOPER: I guess people come up with anything to
justify their actions.
Michael Ware, appreciate the reporting.