Taliban Flogs Individual In Paktika For Theft

According to the report, Iran has dispatched Afghan children to fight in Syria as part of the Fatemiyoun Brigade.

A group of human rights activists in Iran published a comprehensive report on Tuesday, March 12, documenting Iran’s long-term operations of recruitment and use of child soldiers in warfare.

The main goal of this report is to expose the systematic exploitation of vulnerable populations, with a special focus on migrants and Afghan children by Iranian military and paramilitary forces.

The findings of this group of human rights activists document and highlight Iran's violation of several international laws, including the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which stipulates that children under 15 should not be recruited or used in conflicts.

The activists have called for immediate action from the international community, including sanctions, diplomatic pressures, and support for NGOs working to protect vulnerable populations from child recruitment.

The report notes that one of the most concerning findings is the high casualty rate among child soldiers in the Fatemiyoun Brigade.

HRANA added that Iran has recruited Afghan children into the Fatemiyoun Brigade and Pakistani individuals into the Zainabiyoun Brigade.

Fatemiyoun Brigade is a militia group affiliated with Iran's Quds Force, claiming to organise volunteer Afghan forces for deployment to Syria to fight against Bashar Assad's opponents and ISIS.

According to HRANA's report, the Fatemiyoun Division began its operations in 2013, marking the first deployment of Afghan "Fatemiyoun" defenders to Syria.

The report indicates that recruitment agents initially targeted Afghans for enlistment in this force, from factories to prisons, with promises that going to Syria would annul their prison sentences, stabilise their residency status in Iran, and provide them with houses and significant amounts of financial support.

HRANA, quoting the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the former Afghan government, wrote, "Tehran has exploited the poverty and deprivation of Afghans who migrated to Iran for its sectarian and expansionist interests and goals."

Samad Rezai, a commander of the Fatemiyoun in 2018, stated that at least 80,000 individuals under the Fatemiyoun brigades were deployed to Syria, with 2,800 reported as killed.

Zuhair Mujahid, the charge of cultural division of the Fatemiyoun Brigade, announced in 2017 that more than two thousand members of the Fatemiyoun forces had been killed in the Syrian war, with eight thousand wounded.

Recruitment of Children for the War in Syria

HRANA says that most members of the Fatemiyoun Brigade were Afghan migrants. According to the report, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps was also active in recruiting within Afghanistan and had unofficial offices in the country.

Although the exact number of child soldiers in the Fatemiyoun is unclear, HRANA's evidence suggests that the Revolutionary Guards have used children under 18, even under 15, as soldiers to join the Fatemiyoun and participate in the Syrian war.

HRANA's report states that in 2017, Human Rights Watch confirmed the use of at least eight Afghan children in the Fatemiyoun Brigade by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps. All these Afghan children were killed in the Syrian war, and four of them were only 14 years old at the time of their death.

The Taliban's Interior Minister also emphasised on the initiation of economic projects as important for regional stability in this meeting.

Uzbekistan's Foreign Minister, on his visit to Kabul, met and conversed with several Taliban officials, including Mohammad Hassan Akhund, the group’s Prime Minister.

The Taliban's Ministry of Interior announced on Wednesday that Saidov expressed "satisfaction" with the Taliban's efforts to ensure security in Afghanistan, combating drug trafficking, and maintaining regional stability during his meeting with Sirajuddin Haqqani.

In a statement, the ministry added that the two sides also discussed cultural and historical commonalities and economic projects.

Tasmagambetov said that the draft of this plan has been approved by the organisation’s Permanent Council and presented to the member countries.

Tajikistan, which is a member of CSTO, shares it’s border with Afghanistan.

Tajik authorities have repeatedly expressed their concerns about the threat posed by terrorist groups within Afghanistan.

The Secretary-General of the CSTO told TASS news agency that discussions on finalising the plan have been held between the member countries' ministers and relevant bodies of the organisation in recent weeks (late February-early March).

“Here it is important to note the political will of the leadership of two of the organisation’s members, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, who are aware of the scale of the threats emanating from Afghanistan,” he said.

Tasmagambetov expressed hope that the Secretariat of the CSTO would present the results of its work in the first half of the year.

The "Collective Security Treaty" was signed in May 1992 in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. In 2002, this treaty was given the status of an international organisation in Moscow.

Russia, Belarus, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan are members of this organisation.

The front stated that in this attack, two Taliban members had been killed and two others were injured.

Earlier, the NRF had reported that it had attacked a Taliban checkpoint in the "Panjsad Family" neighbourhood of Kabul, where two Taliban members had been killed and one other person was injured.

This is the third guerrilla attack by the Front in the past two days.

Guterres added that the world is going through turbulent times, and women and girls are facing severe hardships.

In his speech on Tuesday at the 68th session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women, he emphasised on the improvement of the situation of women, especially in conflict-affected countries.

The Commission on the Status of Women of the United Nations is the largest global gathering on the status of women, held annually at the General Assembly of the United Nations in New York.

The Taliban government, known for its extensive restrictions on women and recognised for its anti-women stance worldwide, has consistently rejected the global community's requests, especially from Islamic countries, to change its edicts.

During the nearly three years of Taliban rule, women have been deprived of many basic rights, including education, employment, sports, travel, and even going to parks.

Women's rights activists have repeatedly called for the recognition of "gender apartheid" in Afghanistan under the Taliban control.

On Sunday, the UN Women's Office expressed concern in a note on its social media account that restrictions on women in Afghanistan are becoming normalised.