Iran-US War: Amnesty Accuses IRGC of Recruiting 12-Year-Olds as Personnel Shortage Bites

Iran is facing fresh scrutiny over its conduct in the Iran-US war after Amnesty International alleged on Thursday that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has begun recruiting children as young as 12 in Tehran to plug gaps in its forces.

The rights group's warning follows weeks of intense US and Israeli strikes on what they describe as thousands of IRGC-linked sites inside Iran, including Basij facilities, drones targeting patrols and checkpoints, and a wider escalation that has pushed the long-simmering Iran-US confrontation into far more dangerous territory. Against that backdrop, Amnesty says, Iranian commanders are now turning to adolescents to reinforce overstretched units at home.

Iran-US War Allegations Focus On IRGC Child Recruitment

In a report published on 2 April, Amnesty International said it had examined statements by Rahim Nadali, a deputy in the IRGC's Mohammad Rasoul Allah Corps of Greater Tehran, outlining a new recruitment drive under the slogan 'Homeland-Defending Combatants for Iran.'

According to that report, Nadali publicly announced that the campaign was open to 'volunteers aged 12 and above' for service as Basij members within Iran's military structures. The Basij, a paramilitary force under IRGC control, has long been used to police dissent and provide auxiliary manpower in times of crisis.

Amnesty cites Iranian outlet Defapress, which reported Nadali inviting those 'interested' to register at Basij bases in mosques across Tehran by filling in a form to join the 'homeland-defending combatants.' He was also quoted as saying that additional registration booths would be set up in major city squares and other gathering points frequented by pro-Hezbollah supporters, in an apparent effort to normalise and accelerate the sign-up process.

None of these claims has been independently verified on the ground by outside media, and there is no indication so far of how many minors have actually enrolled, or whether they have been deployed in front-line roles. As things stand, the picture is based heavily on Amnesty's interpretation of official Iranian messaging, so details should be treated with caution until corroborated.

Even so, Amnesty's language is unusually blunt. Erika Guevara-Rosas, the organisation's senior director for research, advocacy, policy and campaigns, accused Iran of committing a 'grave war crime' by recruiting children for the Iran-US war.

'As US and Israeli strikes hit thousands of IRGC sites, including Basij facilities, across the country, including through drone attacks targeting security patrols and checkpoints, the deployment of child soldiers alongside IRGC personnel or in their facilities puts them at grave risk of death and injury,' she said.

She called on Tehran to 'immediately stop their criminal assault on children's rights and prohibit the recruitment of anyone under 18 by the armed forces.'

Basij Role Under Spotlight As Iran-US War Deepens

The Basij force has a particular resonance inside Iran, associated as much with street-level enforcement as with battlefield sacrifice. Technically a volunteer militia folded into the IRGC's command structure, its members are often the ones visible at checkpoints, protests and religious events, operating in that grey space between security force and ideological vanguard.

Amnesty attempts to link the IRGC's recruitment campaign to very local, very personal consequences. It highlights the death of 11-year-old Alireza Jafari, who, it says, was killed while accompanying his father, a Basij member, to a checkpoint.

The boy's mother told Amnesty that her husband had taken Alireza with him because there was a shortage of personnel at the site. The report does not specify the date or location of the incident, and there is no publicly available forensic evidence confirming the exact circumstances in which the child died.

Nonetheless, the account underscores the extent to which family life and military duties can blur when a volunteer militia is pressed hard.

Separate witness testimony cited by Amnesty suggests that members of the public have seen boys, visibly younger than ordinary conscripts, manning or assisting at checkpoints in various parts of Iran. These sightings, while anecdotal, align with the group's broader claim that adolescents are being drawn more directly into the security apparatus as the conflict grinds on.

Tehran has not, so far, issued a detailed rebuttal of Amnesty International's specific allegations about 12-year-old volunteers. The use of teenagers in the Basij has long been part of Iran's political mythology, especially in official narratives of the Iran-Iraq war, but current recruitment thresholds and operational roles remain opaque and closely controlled by the security establishment.

The underlying legal question is far less ambiguous. International humanitarian law treats the recruitment and use of children under 15 in hostilities as a war crime, and many human rights advocates argue that any enlistment below 18, especially in an active conflict such as the Iran-US war, is indefensible.

What is still unclear is how far this new drive extends beyond rhetoric and symbolism. Is it a broad mobilisation of very young volunteers for high-risk duties, or a smaller, more carefully managed attempt to project resolve at a moment when the IRGC is under pressure? How many of those signing up understand the danger they may face at a checkpoint that could, as Amnesty notes, be targeted by drones?

Until independent monitors gain access to recruitment centres and front-line positions, those questions will sit in the same uneasy space as much else in this war, heavily alleged, thinly verified and deeply consequential for the children who may be standing guard in their fathers' uniforms.