Iran is ramping up the recruitment of children as young as the age of 12 into military-linked roles tied to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), according to new reports by Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International.

The reports underscore mounting pressure inside Iran’s war effort. As U.S. and Israeli strikes intensify, rights groups and analysts say recruiting children points to manpower shortages and a growing reliance on paramilitary forces to hold the home front. It also escalates the human cost of the conflict, placing minors in direct danger while exposing Iran to potential war crimes liability. 

Human Rights Watch said the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has launched a campaign called “Homeland Defending Combatants for Iran,” lowering the minimum recruitment age to 12 and encouraging minors to sign up in mosques and through Basij, a volunteer paramilitary force under the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. 

The roles go beyond support tasks and include “operational patrols,” staffing checkpoints and intelligence activities, putting children directly in harm’s way as fighting intensifies across the country.

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Amnesty International said the recruitment and deployment of children under 15 “constitutes a war crime,” and backed its findings with verified visual evidence and eyewitness accounts.

The organization analyzed 16 photos and videos published since Saturday, showing children carrying weapons, including AK-pattern rifles, and deployed alongside Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Basij forces at checkpoints, on patrols and during state-organized rallies in Iranian cities including Tehran, Mashhad and Kermanshah.

Amnesty also documented the fatal consequences. On Sunday, 11-year-old Alireza Jafari was killed at a checkpoint in Iran while accompanying his father, a Basij member, the group said. Authorities said he was killed “while serving” following an Israeli drone strike.

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According to Amnesty, the boy’s mother told the Iranian newspaper Hamshahri that her husband had reported a shortage of personnel at checkpoints and took their two sons with him. She said he told their son he “must get prepared for the days ahead,” adding that children as young as 15 and 16 are commonly involved in checkpoint duties.

Eyewitness accounts reviewed by Amnesty describe children visibly struggling to handle weapons. One person in Tehran wrote: “I saw a child at a checkpoint near our house … I think he was about 15… It seemed like he was struggling to breathe from the effort of lifting the gun.”

Another witness in Karaj, Iran, reported seeing a child “holding a Kalashnikov rifle,” while a third in Rasht said some appeared to be “13 years old at most,” warning they could “fire randomly.”

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In one video cited by Amnesty, filmed March 30 in Mashhad, Iran, two children wearing Basij uniforms and balaclavas were seen carrying assault rifles while positioned on a moving vehicle during a state-organized rally, elevated above a cheering crowd.

The recruitment campaign itself has been promoted through official channels, including posters depicting children alongside armed adults under the slogan “Basij with people, for people,” accompanied by a quote attributed to Iran’s Supreme Leader calling for Basij forces to remain central to the revolution.

Iranian officials have defended the policy by pointing to what they describe as strong demand among teenagers.

In a televised interview with Iranian state media, IRGC official Rahim Nadali said the minimum age was set at 12 because “teenagers and the youth repeatedly have come and said that they want to take part.” 

“There is no excuse for a military recruitment drive that targets children to sign up, much less 12-year-olds,” Human Rights Watch’s Bill Van Esveld said.

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The reports come as the United Nations classifies the recruitment of children in armed conflict as a “grave violation,” with international law prohibiting the enlistment of children under 15 and setting 18 as the standard for participation in hostilities.

Both organizations called on Iranian authorities to immediately halt the recruitment of minors and release those already serving. 

Iran’s mission to the United Nations declined Fox News Digital’s comment request. 

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned that an extended conflict between the US, Israel, and Iran risks diverting Washington’s attention away from Ukraine, potentially leaving Kyiv with a dangerous shortage of essential Patriot air defence systems.

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Ukraine desperately needs more US-made Patriot air defence systems to help it counter Russia’s daily barrages, Zelenskyy said in an interview late on Saturday in Istanbul.

Russia’s relentless pounding of urban areas behind the front line following its full-scale invasion of Ukraine more than four years ago has killed thousands of civilians. It has also targeted Ukraine’s energy supply to disrupt industrial production of Ukraine’s newly developed drones and missiles, while also denying civilians heat and running water in winter.

“We have to recognise that we are not the priority for today,” Zelenskyy said. “That’s why I am afraid a long (Iran) war will give us less support.”

A loss of focus on Ukraine

The latest US-brokered talks between envoys from Moscow and Kyiv ended in February with no sign of a breakthrough. Zelenskyy, who has accused Russia of “trying to drag out negotiations” while it presses on with its invasion, said Ukraine remains in contact with US negotiators about a potential deal to end the war and has continued to press for stronger security guarantees.

But, he said, even those discussions reflect a broader loss of focus from Ukraine.

His most immediate concern, Zelenskyy said, are the Patriots — essential for intercepting Russian ballistic missiles — as Ukraine still lacks an effective alternative.

These US systems were never delivered in sufficient quantities to begin with, Zelenskyy said, and if the Iran war doesn’t end soon, “the package — which is not very big for us — I think will be smaller and smaller day by day.”

“That’s why, of course, we are afraid,” he said.

Interlinked wars

Zelenskyy had been counting on European partners to help make the Patriot purchases despite tight supply and limited US production capacity.

But the Iran war, now in its sixth week, has sent shock waves through the global economy and pulled in much of the wider Middle East region, further straining these already limited resources, diverting stockpiles and leaving Ukrainian cities more exposed to ballistic strikes.

For Kyiv, a key objective is to weaken Moscow’s economy and make the war prohibitively costly. Surging oil prices driven by Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz are undermining that strategy by boosting the Kremlin’s oil revenues and strengthening Moscow’s capacity to sustain its war effort.

In his interview, Zelenskyy said Russia draws economic benefits from the Mideast war, citing the limited easing of American sanctions on Russian oil.

“Russia gets additional money because of this, so yes, they have benefits,” he said.

A renewed diplomatic push

To keep Ukraine on the international agenda, Zelenskyy has offered to share Ukraine’s hard-earned battlefield expertise with the United States and allies to develop effective countermeasures against Iranian attacks.

Ukraine has met Russia’s evolving use of Iranian-made Shahed drones with growing sophistication, technological ingenuity and low cost.

Moscow significantly modified the original Shahed-136, rebranded as the Geran-2, enhancing its ability to evade air defences and be mass-produced. Ukraine responded with quick innovation of its own, including low-cost interceptor drones designed to track and destroy incoming drones.

Zelenskyy said Ukraine is ready to share with Gulf Arab countries targeted by Iran its experience and technology, including interceptor drones and sea drones, which Ukraine produces — more than are used up — with funding from Americans and its European partners.

In return, these countries could help Ukraine “with anti-ballistic missiles,” Zelenskyy said.

In late March, as the Iran war escalated, Zelenskyy visited Gulf Arab states to promote Ukraine’s singular experience in countering Iranian-made Shahed drones, leading to new defence cooperation agreements.

Zelenskyy has also positioned Ukraine as a potential partner in safeguarding global trade routes, offering assistance in reopening the Strait of Hormuz by sharing Ukraine’s experiences securing maritime corridors in the Black Sea.

Zelenskyy was in Istanbul for talks with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a day after the Turkish leader spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Zelenskyy said they discussed peace talks and a possible meeting of leaders in Istanbul. He also said there could be new defence deals signed between the two countries soon.

Russia steps up its spring offensive

Each year as the weather improves, Russia moves its grinding war of attrition up a notch. However, it has been unable to capture Ukrainian cities and has made only incremental gains across rural areas. Russia occupies about 20% of Ukraine, including the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia seized in 2014.

On the roughly 1,250-kilometre front line stretching across eastern and southern parts of Ukraine, short-handed Ukrainian defenders are getting ready for a new offensive by Russia’s larger army.

The commander-in-chief of Ukraine’s armed forces, Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi, said Russian troops have in recent days made simultaneous attempts to break through defence lines in several strategic areas.

One thing Zelenskyy says he has insisted on and will continue to do so — a territorial compromise and giving up land will not be on Ukraine’s agenda.

Jonathan Majors‘ new action movie, backed by Ben Shapiro’s The Daily Wire and Dallas Sonnier‘s Bonfire Legend, is facing scrutiny following an on-set accident and a crew strike.

On Friday, Deadline obtained footage of Majors and his co-star, JC Kilcoyne, accidentally falling through a window while filming a scene. In the clip, the two actors stumble backwards into the glass before falling through and out of the frame. As crew members rush in to check whether they’re okay, two voices can be heard affirming that they’re “good.” A voice that appears to be Majors asks if the production was rolling on the action. “Did we shoot it?” the man asks. “Use it.”

Sources told Deadline that the accident occurred “after the window was replaced with an unsecured sheet of tempered glass to be purposefully shattered in a later stunt that did not involve any actors,” and that the actors, and the pane of glass, fell about six feet to the ground. The same sources revealed that Kilcoyne required stitches in his hands.

Kilcoyne’s reps tell Variety that the actor is “doing well and was taken care of immediately by production.” Kilcoyne is wrapped filming on the movie, but his team notes that he “did not feel unsafe on set and continued to have a positive experience working on the project.”

Representatives for Majors have not returned requests for comment. In addition to starring in the film, Majors is an executive producer on the movie under his Tall Street Productions banner.

“The actors’ fall was shorter than the failed movie careers of the now-union reps,” Sonnier told Variety, responding to a request for comment about the accident, as well as the production’s negotiations with the crew who’ve walked off the South Carolina set.

On March 26, IATSE called a strike against the production after crew members walked off the job, which is shooting under the working title “Knuckle,” over a series of labor concerns. Deadline’s reporting indicates that the on-set accident was many crew members’ final straw with the indie production.

“The producers are actively looking for replacement crew,” IATSE shared in a social media post. “All IATSE members are advised not to cross the picket line.”

Despite the walkout, filming is said to continue in some capacity. Variety has reached out to the union for additional comment on the strike’s status.

The film is written and directed by Kyle Rankin, who reunites with the Daily Wire and Bonfire Legend after the 2020 actioner “Run Hide Fight.” The film, which starred Isabel May and Thomas Jane, premiered at the Venice Film Festival. Details about the untitled action movie are largely being kept under wraps, but an early logline hinted toward the plot: “When threats strike the heart of the homeland, American warriors rise with unbreakable grit and unrelenting firepower to defend what makes this country worth fighting for.”

Majors stars in the project after his skyrocketing career — with standout roles in “Creed III,” “Lovecraft Country,” Marvel’s “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” and the “Loki” series — stalled following a 2023 domestic assault conviction. In the wake of the controversy, the actor was fired from the Marvel Cinematic Universe and lost major parts in movies like a pseudo-biopic in which he’d portray basketball legend Dennis Rodman.

In recent months, Majors has staged his comeback, returning to theaters with the tense bodybuilding drama “Magazine Dreams,” which had received rave reviews in its Sundance debut. He is also set to appear in Martin Villeneuve’s thriller “Merciless.”