AFP, Paris

Iran’s security forces are recruiting children as young as 12 to man checkpoints and perform other duties during the war in the capital, a Revolutionary Guards official told state TV on Thursday.

Checkpoints have sprung up all around Tehran since the start of the war, with residents reporting teenagers in plainclothes manning some of them with machine guns.

Iranian authorities have launched a recruitment drive dubbed “For Iran” in Tehran to register people to join the security forces, lowering the minimum age of recruits to 12.

Rahim Nadali, an official with the Guards, told state television that people as young as 12 could register to help the Guards and the Basij youth volunteer militia stand “against the global bully”.

The tasks include “collecting security data and operational patrols” as well as organising caravans of cars at night in the city, he said. “At the Basij checkpoints and patrols that you see across the cities, we had a very high number of volunteers among young people and teenagers who wanted to participate,” he said.