Quote Originally Posted by Harttm View Post
Much has been written on the use of child soldiers in combat. Most of the recent information available has been collected by International Organizations, GOs, NGOs, and the academic researchers. P.W. Singer published "Children at War," (2005) which goes into great detail on the subject from a military perspective. Singer provides some insight into dynamics associated with western militaries confronting child combatants. He does cite OP BARRAS, in which the estimates of West Side Boys casualties ranged from 25-150 killed in action. The highly trained British force had 70 wounded and one killed in action.

Singer identifies that western militaries are hesitant to engage children and offers some approaches to prepare for these inevitable engagements.
The Brit casualties were 1 KIA and 12 WIA. I don't believe that there was any hesitancy to engage the WSBs as the other camp across the river, Magbeni, was a free fire zone. The concern at Gberi Bana was for the hostages. It took 20 mins to secure the hostages yet the contact went on for 4 hours. The lesson learned from this op was how a first class op successful in the first 20 mins can drag on with resultant casualties due to the lack of initial and sustained airborne fire support (CAS).

25-150 kills on the WSBs side? Lets try to deconstruct that figure. It means 25 confirmed kills as evidenced by bodies found/seen/recovered. Where the 150 comes from is open to speculation.