ABSTRACT

In one of the central fighting areas, Zia Hassan said, he saw children sent into mine fields to clear them. “Teen-agers were gathered there and sent across those fields. They told them that if they made it, they would meet the Imam Ali. Tariq Aziz, who as deputy prime minister is one of the most influential leaders of the Iraqi regime, told the author in an exclusive interview, “They bring the most wretched of their people and push them to the front." The small group of journalists traveled through fortification after Iraqi fortification: men dug into trenches, tanks, bunkers, great sand walls, trucks arranged in circles like the covered wagons of people's Wild West, then more of everything. Part of Khomeini’s strategy, if there really is any, may also be to destroy what is left of the old regular Iranian army of the late Shah by sending them ahead with the kids.