Bored at home and eager to join their older brothers and fathers on the frontline against President Bashar al-Assad’s army, Syrian teenagers are joining the rebel cause, oblivious to international laws prohibiting child combatants.
“When they arrive here, they are children. By the time they leave, they are killing machines,” said Abdel Razzaq, a 38-year-old former army sergeant who trains the boys.
“I train them not to be scared of war and not to hesitate when the time comes to kill,” he said, speaking of his latest group of 20 volunteers, aged 14 to 18.
“There are no more adult men in the villages. Now it’s the children who come for military training,” said Abdel Razzaq.
He teaches his students how to handle a Kalashnikov, or AK-47 assault rifle, the weapon most commonly used by the rebels.
He teaches them how to disarm an enemy and kill him with a knife or even their bare hands.