[1] Since 1991, Saddam Hussein's Ashbal child soldiers in Iraq employed training techniques intended to desensitize the youth to violence, including frequent beatings and deliberate cruelty to animals.
[3] Ashbal in Lebanon since spring 1969 have been led by Palestinian Arab leaders like Yasser Arafat, A. Shukairy and George Habash, who initially dubbed them 'baby tigers' and were active in the 1970s and 1980s.
[5] The boys were taught to dismantle, clean and reassemble rifles, pistols and machine guns and are allowed to fire live ammunition.
They underwent a Mau Mau-like hardening course in which each boy was required to tear apart a live chicken to develop a lust for killing.
"[8] The Cubs of the Caliphate is a programme by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant to recruit and train child soldiers between the ages of 10 and 15.