Iran is stepping up recruitment of children as young as 12 for military positions linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), according to new reports from Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International.
The reports underscore mounting pressure within the Iranian war effort. As U.S. and Israeli attacks intensify, rights groups and analysts say the recruitment of children points to manpower shortages and a growing reliance on paramilitary forces to hold the home front. It also increases the human cost of the conflict, putting minors in immediate danger and exposing Iran to potential war crimes.
Human Rights Watch said the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has launched a campaign called “Homeland Defending Combatants for Iran,” lowering the minimum age for recruitment to 12 and encouraging minors to sign up at mosques and through Basij, a volunteer paramilitary force under the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
The duties go beyond support tasks and include ‘operational patrols’, manned checkpoints and intelligence activities, putting children directly at risk as fighting intensifies across the country.
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Members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard march during a parade. The IRGC has been designated by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as a foreign terrorist organization. A large part of her work consists of operating covertly outside Iran. (Reuters)
Amnesty International said so the recruitment and use of children under the age of 15 “constitutes a war crime”, and supported its findings with verified visual evidence and eyewitness accounts.
The organization analyzed 16 photos and videos published since Saturday showing children carrying weapons, including AK-pattern rifles, deployed with the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps and Basij forces at checkpoints, on patrols and during state-organized rallies in Iranian cities including Tehran, Mashhad and Kermanshah.
Amnesty also documented the fatal consequences. On Sunday, 11-year-old Alireza Jafari was killed at a checkpoint in Iran while accompanying his father, a Basij member, the group said. Authorities said he was killed “while serving” after an Israeli drone strike.
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Iranian soldiers take part in a military parade during a ceremony marking the country’s annual Army Day on April 17, 2024 in Tehran, Iran. (Getty Images)
According to Amnesty, the boy’s mother told Iranian newspaper Hamshahri that her husband had reported a shortage of staff at checkpoints and had taken their two sons with him. She said he told their son to “prepare for the days ahead,” adding that children as young as 15 and 16 are often involved in checkpoints.
Eyewitness accounts reviewed by Amnesty describe children visibly having difficulty handling weapons. One person in Tehran wrote: “I saw a child at a checkpoint near our house… I think he was about fifteen… He seemed to be having trouble breathing from the effort of lifting the weapon.”
Another witness in Karaj, Iran, reported seeing a child “with a Kalashnikov rifle in his hand,” while a third in Rasht said some appeared to be “thirteen years old at most,” warning that they could “fire indiscriminately.”
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Children wave Iranian flags during a ceremony celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution, at Azadi, Freedom, Square in Tehran, Iran, Monday, February 11, 2019.
In a video cited by Amnesty, filmed on March 30 in Mashhad, Iran, two children wearing Basij uniforms and balaclavas were seen carrying assault rifles as they were placed on a moving vehicle high above a cheering crowd during a state-organized rally.
The recruitment campaign itself has been promoted through official channels, including posters depicting children and armed adults under the slogan “Basij with people, for people,” accompanied by a quote attributed to Iran’s Supreme Leader, calling for the Basij forces to remain central to the revolution.
Iranian officials have defended the policy by pointing to what they describe as strong demand among teenagers.
In a television interview with Iranian state media, IRGC official Rahim Nadali said the minimum age was set at 12 because “teenagers and young people have repeatedly come and said they want to participate.”
“There is no excuse for a military recruitment drive that targets children, let alone 12-year-olds,” said Bill Van Esveld of Human Rights Watch.
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Iranian schoolboys wear Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) military uniforms and shout anti-American and anti-Israel slogans during a ceremony marking the 47th anniversary of the victory of Iran’s Islamic Revolution at the shrine of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini at Behesht-e Zahra Cemetery in southern Tehran, Iran, on February 1, 2026. (Morteza Nikoubazl/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
The reports come as the United Nations classifies the recruitment of children in armed conflict as a ‘serious violation’, with international law banning the recruitment of children under the age of 15 and setting 18 as the standard for participation in hostilities.
