The story of a 6-year-old Afghan boy who says he thwarted an effort by Taliban militants to trick him into being a suicide bomber provoked tears and anger at a meeting of tribal leaders.
The account from Juma Gul, a dirt-caked child who collects scrap metal for money, left American soldiers dumbfounded that a youngster could be sent on such a mission. Afghan troops crowded around the boy to call him a hero.
Juma said that sometime last month, Taliban fighters forced him to wear a vest they said would spray flowers when he touched a button. He said they told him that when he saw U.S. soldiers, "throw your body at them."
...The militants cornered Juma in a Taliban-controlled district in southern Afghanistan's Ghazni province. Although he is but an impoverished youngster being raised by an older sister — he proved too street-smart for their plan.
"When they first put the vest on my body, I didn't know what to think, but then I felt the bomb," Juma told the Associated Press as he ate lamb and rice after being introduced to the elders at the joint U.S.-Afghan base in Ghazni. "After I figured out it was a bomb, I went to the Afghan soldiers for help."
20 Afghan elders clicked their tongues in sadness and disapproval. When the boy and his brother were brought in, several of the turban-wearing men welled up with tears, wiping their eyes with handkerchiefs.
"If anybody has a heart, then how can you control yourself [before] these kids?" Mr. Deciwal said in broken English.
Wallets quickly opened, and the boys were handed $60 in American and Afghan currency — a good chunk of money in a country where teachers and police earn $70 a month.
Afghan officials described the boys as extremely poor, and Juma said he is being raised by his sister because his father works in a bakery in Pakistan and his mother does domestic work in another village.
"I think the boy is intelligent," Mr. Deciwal said. "When he comes from the enemy, he found a checkpoint of the [Afghan National Army], and he asked the ANA: 'Hey, can you help me? Somebody gave me this jacket, and I don't know what's inside, but maybe something bad.' "
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