Tombstones in northern Syria, close to the Turkish border, provide grim evidence of the fate of underage boys and girls forcibly recruited by the YPG, the Syrian offshoot of the terror group PKK.
According to footage obtained by Anadolu Agency, the tombstones of several YPG/PKK members at a cemetery in the city of Ayn al-Arab (Kobani) show that they died at age 14 to 17. The slain YPG/PKK members were born in the late 1990s and died in the mid-2010s.
The use of children as armed combatants, by terrorist groups or otherwise, is expressly forbidden under international humanitarian law and is defined as a war crime by the International Criminal Court.
The YPG/PKK's use of child soldiers was highlighted by the U.S. State Department's 2020 Trafficking in Persons Report.
The report underlined that the YPG/PKK continued to forcibly recruit boys and girls as young as 12 from refugee camps located in northwestern Syria.
This week, locals in Aleppo, Syria-near northern areas controlled by YPG/PKK terrorists-said two brothers, just 9 and 10 years old, had just been kidnapped by the terrorist group.
Moreover, a January 2020 UN human rights office (OHCHR) report said its findings suggest the YPG/PKK is using children as fighters in Syria.
In July 2019, Virginia Gamba, the UN secretary-general's special representative for children and armed conflict, signed an action plan with the SDF-the label the YPG/PKK terror group uses in Syria-to end and prevent the recruitment and use of minors under 18, but the terror group has violated the plan.
In its more than 35-year terror campaign against Türkiye, the PKK-listed as a terrorist organization by Türkiye, the U.S., and the EU-has been responsible for the deaths of over 40,000 people, including women, children and infants. The YPG is the PKK's Syrian offshoot.
