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Iranian state television IRIB has broadcast weapons training programmes featuring simulated shooting at the forehead of US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as well as a live demonstration in which a host fired at the flag of the United Arab Emirates.
The broadcasts, which have appeared across multiple IRIB channels, show live studio instruction on how to operate and dismantle weapons including Kalashnikov rifles, PK machine guns, the Dragunov sniper rifle and the RPG-7.
The network has also broadcast footage of weapons training inside mosques in Ahvaz, Kerman, Shiraz and Zahedan, presenting men, women and children as having turned up voluntarily to learn to fight against the US and Israel.
Mohsen Barmahani, IRIB’s deputy head, defended the programming. “In a wartime situation, and in a country that is simultaneously engaged in a struggle against all world powers and oppressions, it is only natural for the national media to adopt a war footing,” Barmahani told Tasnim News Agency.
“The appearance of hosts with weapons in programs serves as a reminder of these teachings to the people,” he said.
IRIB operates under the direct supervision of the ayatollah, but the new Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei’s condition remains unclear amid reports of serious injuries he sustained in the opening salvo of the war on 28 February.
US-Israeli strikes on Tehran on that day resulted in the death of his father and former Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Child recruitment and death at a checkpoint
The broadcasts come as Iranian human rights organisations reported that an 11-year-old boy was killed by an Israeli drone strike while manning an IRGC checkpoint in Tehran last Sunday.
Hengaw and HRANA identified the child as Alireza Jafari and said his father was present at the time of the strike. Both organisations said he had been assigned to the checkpoint by Iran’s security forces. Euronews could not independently verify the claims.
Reports from a media outlet affiliated with Tehran municipality and from Basij units also described Alireza’s death in the context of service at a checkpoint.
The boy’s mother was quoted as saying his father had taken him there due to a shortage of personnel, and that teenagers aged 15 and 16 — or younger — were regularly present at checkpoints.
The Basij Teachers Organisation, an ideological training branch of the militia linked to the IRGC, was cited by multiple Iranian media outlets abroad as having confirmed the death.
The IRGC formally announced a civilian recruitment campaign on 26 March, setting the minimum enlistment age at 12.
Rahim Nadali, deputy of the Mohammad Rasulullah IRGC unit in Tehran, said in a television appearance on the same date that children of 12 and 13 had expressed interest in taking part in intelligence patrols and checkpoint operations.
An IRGC advertising poster published by Defa Press News Agency showed two children alongside adults in military uniform.
Human Rights Watch warned this month that the recruitment campaign constitutes “a grave violation of children’s rights and a war crime when the children are under 15.”
The organisation said IRGC representative Nadali confirmed recruits would be used for checkpoint staffing, operational and intelligence patrols, vehicle convoys and other security activities.
Basij checkpoints have proliferated across Tehran since the war began and have been repeatedly targeted by Israeli strikes.
The use of minors in Iran’s military structures is not new. During the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s, the authorities recruited hundreds of thousands of children into the Basij for high-risk operations, with tens of thousands killed, according to HRW estimates based on Iranian official figures.
Reports of child recruitment have also emerged in regional conflicts and in domestic crackdowns in subsequent years.
Under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, conscripting or enlisting children under the age of 15 into armed forces or using them to participate actively in hostilities constitutes a war crime.
Iran also ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and signed the convention’s additional protocol, which prohibits recruiting minors under 18 to participate in armed conflicts.
