In an interview with Al Arabiya, Rahim Nadali, a representative of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, said Iranian authorities had lowered the minimum age for military service to 12.

He said teenagers were expected to help guard checkpoints, patrol streets and gather security-related information. Nadali also said schoolchildren were being recruited as volunteers under the «For Iran» campaign.

According to him, the decision to allow children aged 12 to 13 into service was made because of what he described as a large number of young volunteers seeking to support the IRGC and the Basij militia in the confrontation with the United States. He said many young people and teenagers had wanted to join checkpoint duties and Basij patrols across the city, and that the age threshold had been lowered in response.

Earlier, it was reported that at the end of February, the United States and Israel launched a military operation against Iran. According to the information cited in the article, the strikes killed the country’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and members of the Iranian military command. Tehran later responded with large-scale strikes on US bases in the Persian Gulf states.