Advertisement
World & Nation

Photos: Children joining the desperate ranks of Syria’s rebels

Hussein Mansour, 16, right, sits with fellow young fighters in the Umayyad Mosque in Aleppo, Syria. Thirteen of Mansour's uncles and cousins have been killed fighting government forces. Human rights groups say thousands of child fighters have taken up arms in the conflict.

Hussein Mansour, 16, right, sits with fellow young fighters in the Umayyad Mosque in Aleppo, Syria. Thirteen of Mansour’s uncles and cousins have been killed fighting government forces. Human rights groups say thousands of child fighters have taken up arms in the conflict.   (Raja Abdulrahim / Los Angeles Times)

Share

As hundreds of rebel fighters desert the ranks of the opposition and many others are killed daily in battles in the Syrian civil war, their positions are increasingly filled by teenagers who have become inured to the sound of war.

Children increasingly joining Syrian rebels

Syrians mourn after a government barrel bomb attack killed five members of the same family in the northern city of Aleppo. The war has already claimed more than 190,000 lives and each day brings new civilian casualties.  (Zein Al-Rifai / AFP/Getty Images)

Children increasingly joining Syrian rebels

Rescue workers walk amid damage from an alleged Syrian government barrel bomb attack in Aleppo. A Human Rights Watch report on the use of child soldiers accuses Syrian armed groups of enlisting vulnerable children whose families have been killed.  (Zein Al-Rifai / AFP/Getty Images)

Children increasingly joining Syrian rebels

Hussein Mansour, a 16-year-old rebel fighter in Syria, walks in the ruins of the medieval-era Souk Madina. Many boys like Hussein seem to live by the ominous creed often heard in rebel areas: “It’s all one death.”   (Raja Abdulrahim / Los Angeles Times)

World & Nation

More From the Los Angeles Times

Advertisement