Iraqi Kurdish militias using child soldiers

BAGHDAD: Two Iraqi militias linked to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) are recruiting child soldiers, Human Rights Watch said on Thursday.

The rights group said it had documented 29 cases of Kurdish and Yezidi children recruited by the People’s Defence Forces (HPG) -- an armed wing of the PKK -- and the Shingal Resistance Units (YBS).

The HPG has forces in Turkey, Syria and Iraq, and is fighting against Turkish forces and also against militias including the Islamic State group.

“In two cases the armed groups abducted or seriously abused children who tried to leave their forces,” HRW said in a statement.

“The groups should urgently demobilise children, investigate abuses, pledge to end child recruitment, and appropriately penalise commanders who fail to do so.”

The PKK is a Kurdish separatist group which Turkey considers to be a “terrorist” organisation.

The YBS is formed largely of fighters from the Yezidi religious minority, which has faced a campaign of extermination by IS.