The US military has said that its soldiers shot dead a 12-year-old boy who tried to attack a joint American and Iraqi patrol with a grenade in the tense northern city of Mosul.
"Coalition forces fired on two of three individuals positively identified as involved in the attack, killing one, who they later discovered was a 12-year-old boy," said Master Sergeant Michael Wetzel.
"We have every reason to believe that insurgents are paying children to conduct these attacks or assist the attackers in some capacity, but undoubtedly placing the children in harm's way," he said, following Thursday's shooting.
Islamist militants and especially Al-Qaida have in the past been known to use young boys and girls to plant roadside bombs and even carry out suicide attacks.
The US military considers Mosul to be the last major urban stronghold of Al-Qaida militants in Iraq, but Washington's top commander in the country said that the army was still expected to pull out by the end of June.
"We are on our way out of Baghdad, and we've been slowly turning that over to the Iraqi security forces now for about three months," General Ray Odierno said in Washington.
