Militias affiliated with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) armed group have recruited minors in Iraq and beat them for trying to leave, a human rights organization said this.

Axar.az informs citing to Sputnik, the HRW has documented 29 cases in northern Iraq where children under the age of 15 were recruited by PKK’s armed wing, the People’s Defense Forces (HPG), and Yazidi religious community’s Shingal Resistance Units (YBS).

"Boys and girls should be with their families and going to school, not used as means to military ends," Human Rights Watch children’s rights chief Zama Coursen-Neff said in a statement.