The use of child soldiers is a practice that is as old as the history of warfare itself. Since its founding, the Islamic State has embraced the tactic, but has added a modern twist with the use of social media to gather young recruits into the radical jihadist movement. And as international pressure has squeezed the group on the battlefield, it has increasingly used the children under its sway to carry out combat operations -- even suicide bombings.
The latest case of a child persuaded by jihadists to attempt an attack in the West comes from Germany, where a 12-year-old boy was arrested after apparently trying and failing to set off a nail-packed bomb near a Christmas market in Ludwigshafen. He had been radicalized, police say, by an Islamic State recruiter who communicated with him over the instant-messenger app Telegram....
