Did Iran use kids to clear minefields?

They were the first wave, making the way for Iranian tanks by clearing barbed wire and minefields with their bodies. Iranian child soldiers marching off to fight Iraq in the Iran-Iraq War. These children weren’t the only human wave attackers, but they certainly were the most notable – and effective.

Did the Iran-Iraq War use chemical weapons?

Chemical weapons were employed by Iraqi forces against Iranian combatants and non-combatants during the Iran–Iraq war (1980–1988). The best-known substances used by the Iraqi army were organophosphate neurotoxins, known as nerve agents Tabun, Sarin, and mustard gas.

How many child soldiers died in the Iran-Iraq War?

According to the statistics provided by the Foundation for the Preservation and Dissemination of the Values of the Sacred Defense — as Iranian officials refer to the war with Iraq — more than 22,000 underage students were killed during the eight years of the war [Persian link].

How many Iranians died during Iran-Iraq War?

500,000
The number of casualties in the Iran-Iraq War ranges from 1,000,000 to twice that number. The number killed on both sides was perhaps 500,000, with Iran suffering the greatest losses.

Is child soldiers still a problem?

Despite global efforts to end the use of child soldiers, girls and boys are still forced into combat – as fighters and in other roles – in at least 14 countries including the Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan and Somalia. Children are not only recruited by armed forces and groups as fighters.

Is using nerve gas a war crime?

The Protocol for the Prohibition of the Use in War of Asphyxiating, Poisonous or other Gases, and of Bacteriological Methods of Warfare, usually called the Geneva Protocol, is a treaty prohibiting the use of chemical and biological weapons in international armed conflicts.

Was mustard gas used in the Iran Iraq war?

Mustard gas as a chemical weapon has been used in many wars during the 20th century by countries including Italy (1935), Japan (1936), and Egypt (1963–1967). [2,3,7] This warfare agent was widely used by Iraq during the Iran–Iraq war between 1983 and 1988.

Why did Saddam attacked Iran?

There are two main motives ascribed to Saddam Husayn’s decision to invade Iran in 1980. One motive is that he invaded for geopolitical gain when international factors worked in his favor. The other is that he invaded to prevent Iran from fo- menting revolution in Iraq.

Does Iran still use child soldiers?

Current Iranian law officially prohibits the recruitment of those under 16. Iraqi officers claimed that they sometimes captured Iranian child soldiers as young as eight years old.

How many US soldiers died in the Iraq war?

As of July 19, 2021, according to the U.S. Department of Defense casualty website, there were 4,431 total deaths (including both killed in action and non-hostile) and 31,994 wounded in action (WIA) as a result of the Iraq War.

What countries use child soldiers 2021?

Twelve previously-listed countries made repeat appearances this year — Afghanistan, Burma (Myanmar), the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Mali, Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan, Syria, and Yemen.

What country uses child soldiers the most?

In 2019 alone, more than 7,740 children, some as young as six, were recruited and used as soldiers around the world, according to the United Nations. Most are recruited by non-state groups. 2. The Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia, Syria and Yemen currently have the largest number of child soldiers.

What happened in Iraq’s Operation Forty Stars?

On 18 June, Iraq launched Operation Forty Stars (چل چراغ chehel cheragh) in conjunction to the Mujahideen-e-Khalq (MEK) around Mehran. With 530 aircraft sorties and heavy use of nerve gas, they crushed the Iranian forces in the area, killing 3,500 and nearly destroying a Revolutionary Guard division.

How did the Ba’ath Party react to the Iranian Revolution?

Iran’s new Islamic administration was regarded in Baghdad as an irrational, existential threat to the Ba’ath government, especially because the Ba’ath party, having a secular nature, discriminated against and posed a threat to the fundamentalist Shia movement in Iraq, whose clerics were Iran’s allies within Iraq and whom Khomeini saw as oppressed.

What were the proxy forces in the Iran-Iraq War?

There were a number of proxy forces operating for both countries—most notably the People’s Mujahedin of Iran, which had sided with Iraq, and the Iraqi Kurdish militias of the KDP and PUK, which had sided with Iran.

Why did Iraq go on the defensive in the 1980s?

Iraq’s strategic reserves had been depleted, and by now it lacked the power to go on any major offensives until nearly the end of the war. On 7 December, Hussein announced that Iraq was going on the defensive. By the end of 1980, Iraq had destroyed about 500 Western-built Iranian tanks and captured 100 others.