Iran-backed Houthis send kids to frontlines, threaten their relatives

A military source revealed that the Houthis’ treatment of children fleeing from the fronts is carried out harshly and is a type of crime, indicating that the child’s lack of experience in combat matters or how to overcome difficulties, some of them flee from the fronts.

The source noted in media statements that when those kids go under arrest, a new phase of Houthi violations against the innocence of children begins, as they are thrown into different prisons and tortured, and considered rogue traitors, and they should not be trusted or dealt with.

He added that inside these prisons, kids are being subjected to different types of threats from some people who practice psychological torture of children, in terms of threat by killing their parents, preventing them from meeting them for life, cutting off relief supplies for their families, and kidnapping and killing their brothers.

The source pointed out that the Houthis are deluding the imprisoned children with the so-called amnesty of the master so that they are informed that they were to be killed, but the master pardoned them, and they must appreciate this pardon, and that they must spend a long time in prisons, or return to the fronts.

The source explained that children are being recruited and joined to the fronts through semi-repetitive methods and scenarios, starting with the temptation and approval of their parents, or by kidnapping from schools and in front of homes, or by promising children things that correspond to their age desires.

The Houthis send these children, whose ages range between seven and eighteen, to fight on the fronts after quick training sessions that do not exceed a week.

There are large numbers of children who were killed on the frontlines, and the rest fell from mountain tops or were stung by scorpions and snakes, or were subjected to different and volatile climatic conditions.