War in Iran: Revolutionary Guards mobilize 12-year-old children to patrol Tehran

It’s a different kind of escalation. Iranian authorities have decided to lower the minimum age required to join the ranks of volunteers patrolling Tehran to 12 years, an official announced in a televised speech on Thursday.

This measure is explained because “everyone wants to contribute to the resistance front formed against the global tyrant (formula used by the Iranian government to designate the United States, Editor’s note)” and “we have a very large number of volunteers among the youth”, justified Rahim Nadali, a leader of a branch of the Revolutionary Guards in the capital.

Since the start of the war, Iranian security forces have increased the number of checkpoints in Tehran to prevent any demonstrations against the Islamic Republic.

These reinforced controls are carried out by the basijs, the “mobilization force” made up of volunteers who number around 600,000 nationally. According to Mr. Nadali, “many young people and adolescents want to take part” in these missions entrusted to the basijs, consisting of “collecting security data and ensuring operational patrols”.

Threat of “more lethal” response in case of riots

A new stage in the threat posed by the regime to its population. To keep silent or die is the choice given by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, the Iranian ideological army, to the population. They warned almost two weeks ago that any new demonstrations against the government would provoke a “more scathing” response than in January, when probably tens of thousands of people were killed.

“Today, the evil enemy, unable to achieve its military objectives on the ground, is once again seeking to instill terror and provoke riots,” the Guardians said in a statement broadcast on television, promising an even more deadly response “than that of January 8” in the event of new unrest.

Iranian authorities acknowledge the deaths of more than 3,000 people in January protests but say the vast majority were security forces or bystanders killed by “terrorists” acting on behalf of the United States and Israel.

According to the NGO Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), based in the United States, more than 7,000 people, most of them demonstrators, were killed, a provisional toll due to lack of access to all death certificates.