Qaeda-linked teen bike bombers arrested in Iraq

Iraqi security forces have arrested three teenagers recruited by Al-Qaeda to carry out bicycle bomb attacks in the capital, the army said on Tuesday.

The boys were part of a group named the "Al-Qaeda Lion Cubs" and trained to carry out attacks against the security forces, Iraqi army Baghdad spokesman Major General Qassim Atta told reporters.

"The children would carry their IEDs (improvised explosive devices) on bicycles because the army and police wouldn't search them and they could move through alleyways," Atta said.

Six adults alleged to have acted as recruiters were arrested along with the teenagers on July 26, he added.

The name of the group bears a similarity to the "Saddam Lion Cubs," a paramilitary youth group loyal to executed former dictator Saddam Hussein, who was overthrown in the 2003 US-led invasion.

"The children arrested were carrying out their attacks for 100,000 dinars (85 dollars), not because they believe in (Al-Qaeda's) ideals but because of poverty," Atta said.

The recruitment of the boys showed Al-Qaeda was increasingly favouring "children, widows and the uneducated" in carrying out attacks, he added. He refused to say if other children are also believed involved in the "cubs" group.

One of those arrested, Ahmad Abdallah, who said he was born in 1992, admitted in a videotaped confession shown to reporters that he had been involved in a series of attacks in restive neighbourhoods in Baghdad's west.

"I carried out three attacks using IEDs in Yarmuk and Amariyah against the army," he said.

Security forces in the northern city of Kirkuk announced in April they had arrested four children under the age of 14 who had been recruited by Al-Qaeda into a group calling itself "Birds of Paradise" to carry out suicide attacks.

Violence in Iraq has dropped significantly in recent months, but attacks remain common in the capital and the troubled northern city of Mosul.

The number of violent deaths in Iraq fell by a third to 275 in July, the first month local forces have been in charge of security in urban areas since the US-led invasion.