What a way to spend your childhood!!! So sad that these children can't live a normal life.
CHILDREN JOIN SYRIAN REBELS' DESPERATE RANKS
By RAJA ABDULRAHIMcontact the reporter
Middle EastColumn OneWorld NewsRebellionsLaws and LegislationWars and InterventionsHuman Rights
More children joining ranks of Syria's desperate rebels
Teenage boys on front lines of Syria's civil war are resigned to a morbid fate
The prayer room in the 12th century mosque had the feel of a bachelor pad — cups of tea and coffee and half-full ashtrays covered most surfaces. A lanky teenager named Hussein Mansour plopped himself down and placed a grenade and a small bag of pretzels on the table.
He picked up the grenade again and pretended to pull the ring, looking around for a reaction. A fellow rebel fighter, Abu Musab, paused from sucking on a hookah pipe and gave the 16-year-old a disapproving look.
"I mean, he's carrying a grenade and a 3-cent bag of chips," he said, shaking his head. "It doesn't fit. He's too young."
Hussein plunked down a can of iced coffee on the table and looked over at Abu Musab expectantly, as if to tip the opinion scale with a caffeinated drink.
Raja Abdulrahim / Los Angeles Times
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."
As hundreds of fatigued 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 like Hussein, a boy with an easy grin and light peach fuzz spread along his chin.
Continue reading at:
http://www.latimes.com/world/great-reads/la-fg-c1-syria-child-soldiers-20140916-
CHILDREN JOIN SYRIAN REBELS' DESPERATE RANKS
By RAJA ABDULRAHIMcontact the reporter
Middle EastColumn OneWorld NewsRebellionsLaws and LegislationWars and InterventionsHuman Rights
More children joining ranks of Syria's desperate rebels
Teenage boys on front lines of Syria's civil war are resigned to a morbid fate
The prayer room in the 12th century mosque had the feel of a bachelor pad — cups of tea and coffee and half-full ashtrays covered most surfaces. A lanky teenager named Hussein Mansour plopped himself down and placed a grenade and a small bag of pretzels on the table.
He picked up the grenade again and pretended to pull the ring, looking around for a reaction. A fellow rebel fighter, Abu Musab, paused from sucking on a hookah pipe and gave the 16-year-old a disapproving look.
"I mean, he's carrying a grenade and a 3-cent bag of chips," he said, shaking his head. "It doesn't fit. He's too young."
Hussein plunked down a can of iced coffee on the table and looked over at Abu Musab expectantly, as if to tip the opinion scale with a caffeinated drink.
Raja Abdulrahim / Los Angeles Times
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."
As hundreds of fatigued 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 like Hussein, a boy with an easy grin and light peach fuzz spread along his chin.
Continue reading at:
http://www.latimes.com/world/great-reads/la-fg-c1-syria-child-soldiers-20140916-
