Iranian lawmaker Ahmad Alirezabeigi said the hard-line state militia known as the Basij is governed by regulations that allow it to recruit minors in the ongoing deadly crackdown on protests in the country.
In an interview published Oct. 20 by the Iran-based Rouydad 24 news site, Alirezabeigi was challenged about multiple recent pictures showing baton-wielding teenage boys in riot gear. The lawmaker said Basij authorities are treating the protests the same way they treated the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s, when children were deployed to the front line.
