Summer camp for Iraqi Shiite boys: Training to fight IS

FILE - In this Sunday, March 15, 2015, file photo, a young Shiite volunteer militiaman stands near a vehicle on his way to the battlefield against Islamic State fighters in Tikrit, Iraq. The Associated Press has found that militia forces battling the Islamic State group are actively training children under 18 years old. (AP Photo/Khalid Mohammed, File) FILE - In this Sunday, March 15, 2015, file photo, a young Shiite volunteer militiaman stands near a vehicle on his way to the battlefield against Islamic State fighters in Tikrit, Iraq. The Associated Press has found that militia forces battling the Islamic State group are actively training children under 18 years old. (AP Photo/Khalid Mohammed, File)

By Associated Press July 28, 2015 8 min read

BAGHDAD (AP) – In the steamy Baghdad night, sweat poured down the faces of the Iraqi teens as they marched around a school courtyard, training for battle against the Islamic State group.

This is summer camp in Iraq, set up by the country’s largest paramilitary force after Iraq’s top Shiite cleric issued an edict calling on students as young as middle-school age to use their summer vacations to prepare to fight the Sunni extremists.

Dressed in military fatigues, 15-year-old Asam Riad was among the dozens of youths doing high-knee marches, his chest puffed out to try to appear as tall as the older cadets.

“We’ve been called to defend the nation,” the scrawny boy asserted, his voice cracking as he vowed to join the Popular Mobilization Forces, the government-sanctioned umbrella group of mostly Shiite militias.

“I am not scared because my brothers are fighting alongside me.”