The Palestinians usually (but not always) confine their child abuse to brainwashing and pageantry. Not so the “Afghan resistance,” as some anti-war groups have now taken to calling them. First there was the video of the 12-year-old Talib beheading an accused NATO spy, then there was the ABC video last week of another(?) 12-year-old “graduating” from jihad school, and now this. Their brothers in Iraq figured out a few months the benefits of using children in suicide attacks. Afghanistan’s finally caught up:

Children as young as six are being used by the Taliban in increasingly desperate suicide missions, coalition forces in Afghanistan claimed yesterday.

The International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), to which Britain contributes 5,000 troops in southern Afghanistan, revealed that soldiers defused an explosive vest which had been placed on a six-year-old who had been told to attack Afghan army forces in the east of the country.

The boy was spotted after appearing confused at a checkpoint. The vest was defused and no one was hurt.

The claim came only hours after the second report this week that civilians had been killed in Nato military operations…

“They placed explosives on a six-year-old boy and told him to walk up to the Afghan police or army and push the button,” said Captain Michael Cormier, the company commander who intercepted the child, in a statement. “Fortunately, the boy did not understand and asked patrolling officers why he had this vest on.”

Thanks to Weasel Zippers for the tip. To wash out the taste of that little nod at moral equivalence in the blockquote, watch this video from (of all places) the BBC. Thanks to INDC Bill for tipping me to that one.