 Iraqi officers claimed that they sometimes captured Iranian child soldiers as young as eight years old.As of 2018 the Iranian government has been recruiting children from Iran and Afghanistan to fight in the Syrian Civil War on the side of forces loyal to the Assad government.Jihad Shomaly, in a report entitled "Use of Children in the Occupied Palestinian Territories", published in 2004 for the Defence for Children International/Palestine Section, concludes the report by stating that a handful of children perceive martyrdom a way to strike a blow against those they hold responsible for their hopeless situation, and that they have been recruited by Palestinian paramilitary groups to carry out armed attacks.