Figure 1.--This is a group of Ashbal Saddam. The boys look like younger teenagers. They wear black uniforms and atr practing with their AK-47s.

We have noted press reports on something called the Ashbal Saddam or Saddam's Lion Cubs. We are not sure how Ashbal Saddam relates to other Bath Party youth organizations. This is not a mass organization like the Hitler Youth, but rather a small elite group. There may be as many of 8,000 of these boys. They appear to be primarily orphans who have been raised to be fanatically loyal to Saddam Hussein. The children of regime officials are not recruited to this group as the children of NAZI officials were to the Hitler Youth. Some of them may have been recruited to the Fedayeen Saddam (Saddam's Men of Sacrifice), fanatically loyal Bath Party cadres who have been used as an internal security force. Both Saddam's Lion Cubs and the Fedayeen Saddam seem to wear black uniforms with little detailing, although our information is limited.

The Organization

We have noted press reports on something called the Ashbal Saddam or Saddam's Lion Cubs. We are not sure how Ashbal Saddam relates to other Bath Party youth organizations.

Nature

This is not a mass organization like the Hitler Youth, but rather a small elite group. It appears to be more a paramilitary unit composed of children rather than a youth group.

Foundation

Ashbal Saddam was founded after the Persian Gulf War which resulted from Saddam's abortive 1990 invasion of Kuwait. In the aftermath of the Saddam's defeat in the Persian Gulf War (1991), insurections in the Kurdish north and the Shi'ite south almost resulted in the end of Saddam's and Bathist rule. Saddam and Bathist officials were shocked by the lack od ideological zeal on the part of the Army and a large part of the Iraqi people. In addition, there were even mtinies with in the Republican Guard. One of the responses to this was to create a para-military groups of fervantly loyal supporters. Ashbal Saddam is a fairly new organization. It was founded in 1998.

Age

The boys are ages 10-15 years old. Some reports suggest even younger boys are involved. After they reach 16 they move on to the Fedayeen Saddam.

Size

There may be as many of 8,000 of these boys.

Membership

One report suugested that the boys are orphans who have been raised to be fanatically loyal to Saddam Hussein. We have no information on the recruitment process. Another report suggests that boys without fathers are targetted, which may mean in some instances men who have been executed by Saddam's security forces or disappeared in their custody. [IFHM] The children of regime officials are not recruited to this group as the children of NAZI officials were to the Hitler Youth.

Figure 2.--Saddam's Cubs are tested at the end of their training camp. They fire at animals, increasingly large ones as they get okder. A Cub after killing an animal skins it and tears at it with his hands and mouth. He is then proclained as Saddam's hero".

Education and Training

Therec are numerous training camps for the children. We have no information at this time as to what kind of academic education they receive. We do know that they receive extensive training in small arms and infantry tactics. They are schooled in the ideology of the Baath Party. They are not just tarined in conventional infantry tactics, but there training includes guerilla/terrorist tactics as well. There training includes establishing roadblocks, carrying out ambushes, sniper assualts, sabotage, and other operations. Special attention iks given to urban warfare. [Singer]

Saddam began working on children much earlier than 1998. As early as 1977 he said, ""To avoid parents being a retrograde force in the home, we must arm the child with an inner light so that he can repel this influence. Some fathers have escaped our hold for various reasons, but a young boy is still in our hands... The family unit must comply with centralised customs, ruled by revolutionary positions and traditions. Teach him to stand up to one or other of his parents... And also teach the child that he must also be wary of strangers...a student adept at moving within different yet perfectly organised structures will, when the time comes, be able to stand in the sun, bearing arms day and night, without flagging [...] and when asked to confront the imperialists or to charge in attacks in this troubled region, will do so because, from childhood, he has developed the habit of doing everything in an orderly way." [IFHR] Of course virtually the same words, with the exception of the attack on "imerialists" could have been quoted from Adolf Hitler when speaking of the Hitler Youth. Saddam has reportedly sent thousands of boys aged 12-17 years to military training camps. These camps have varied over time, but involve a minimum of 3 weeks learning light weaponry and basic soldiering, along with Bathist political indoctrination. Apparently in recent years "religious" classes have been added as Saddam has veered away from Arab secular socialism upon which the Bath Party was founded to a more Islamic appraoch which is more apealing to Arabs in other countries. Graduates are then selected for special schools, military institutes and universities. The Ashbal Saddam program appears to be quite different. These boys go through a program that involves several years not a short basic training program of a few weeks, after which they go directly into the Fedayeen Sadam.

Family and Neighbors

Parents and neighbors express concern about these boys. [IFHR] The younger boys might repeat something he heard said out of innosence with potentially horiffic consequences for his parents. Older boys might well report a neighbor or his parents for a wide range of reasons from loyalty to Saddam to personalm vindictivness. According gto a human rights group a witness testipifed, "My mother decided it was better for my children to leave school, as no one can refuse to allow a child become Fidayi. My 10-year old daughter had already been trained to handle weapons; and students who do not join in, are given lower markls at school". The IFHR report goes on to describe that only medical certificates werec safe ways to ensure that children were not trained as Saddam Cubs. The IFHR concludes, "Anyone who does not comply stands out as an exceotion and lives in fear of the regime 'stealing' their chidren and turning them into fiture security guards for Saddam." [IFHR]

Fedayeen Saddam

Ashbal Saddam are recruited to the (Saddam's Men of Sacrifice), fanatically loyal Bath Party cadres who have been used as an internal security force. [Singer] While the purpose of Ashbal Saddam was to prepare suitably trained and indocrtinated boys for the Fedayeen Sadam, at least some of these boys have been used in military operations against the Americans.

Uniforms

Both Saddam's Lion Cubs and the Fedayeen Saddam seem to wear similar black uniforms with little detailing, although our information is limited.

Sources

"Ashbal Saddam (Saddam's Lion Cubs)" Iraqi News, April 7, 2003.

International Federation for Human Rights (IFHR). Iraq, an Intollerable, Forgotten and Unpunished Repression

Peter Singer, "Facing Saddam's Child Soldiers" (Brookings Institute).