What sort of world is this?

I can imagine that the poor little soul was utterly terrified. Even though he might have believed he was going to heaven, he was leaving everything he knew and loved.

I remember reading about an archeological find of children's bodies used in religious sacrifice . A great honour in South America. But it was discovered that they poo-d themselves in fear. How barbaric. At least you can say that that was long ago and different understanding, but there are no excuses for this now.

Same as it has always been. I am not sure whether that remark is realism or cynicism.

And our thoughts on those 'brave' men who conned him into doing their dirty work?

Isn't it strange these "men" don't carry out these deeds themselves and, I would guess, don't send their own children - just other peoples.

I wonder if he even knew what was going to happen. There was a picture today of a toddler killed by a land mine and I see the brother of the little Syrian boy has died from his injuries. The people behind all this will only see it as collateral damage, and probably not even that.

Anya my thoughts are unrepeatable

Using children as weapons or deliberately targeting them is beyond evil.

The whole thing is evil. Why must people fight all the time. I mean what the heck if someone else likes to worship something different from another person, or has a different coloured skin. I just think live and let live, but what a stupid thing for me to say. There will never be peace in the world as long as Human Beings exist

They are not even worshiping different Gods. If you believe there is only one God He/She is just being worshipped differently. If there is a God He/ She must be in despair.

All this fighting over the centuries. Really not about Him/ Her but about greed, spite, land and power. People.will never change as I believed as a youngster and their brutality is never ending. I find the news sickening and feel helpless.

IYou could not have put it betterLullyDully I too, despair of the world and for the future of our grandchildren and their children. But , as they say, there is always Hope.

Like all you other grans I was horrified to hear that the suicide bomber was only a child - probably brainwashed by his "brave mentors" into believing what he was doing was god's work. What can we grans do to help - evil is prevailing while good people are doing nothing.

In this case I really don't know what we can do to help.
These acts are beyond evil and it is hard to understand how humans can treat other humans, especially children, in such a way.

There is a picture online today of police removing a suicide belt from a boy who looks about 13.

I agree , but ,let us not forget we are willing to allow children to live in the Calais jungle , they are suffering too

I read that the bomb was detonated remotely. The cowardice of the perpetrators is beyond contempt.

Bloody men.

Not just men I fear, there are women going out to Syria to support these evil men. I'm at a loss as to why?

I agree with most of above but we have been involved in numerous bombings where hundreds of innocents have died - it's not better to do it from the air where we are not confronted with the bodies. We made it all worse and weakened the UN in the process.

I don't think we are 'willing' to let children live in the Calais jungle, and I don't think we are responsible for their arrival there either... Marcus Brigstock was on the radio some weeks back getting very excited about the plight of children in war zones and saying we should bring them here, get them into decent schools, give them some proper food, and the audience was cheering and yelling agreement. You would have to be made of stone not to feel for their plight, but the one thing that the critics of Calais, and Marcus Brigstock, do not ever follow through with is - what are we to do with them when they get here? Our schools are already seriously overcrowded with some having 16 form intakes and portakabins covering almost every inch of the playground, the NHS is creaking under the strain, and who is going to take on thousands of children who will be traumatised, out of their depth with our language and culture, and probably in need of long term mental health care as a result of their sufferings? Yes, 'something' must be done to stop the evil men who are using children as weapons, yes, we must help those suffering at Calais, but a workable answer is yet to be found for these humanitarian disasters.

I agree with Rosina ...too many people are hand wringing and saying ;something must be done'....but WHAT ? until someone can come up with a workable solution I am afraid this carnage will go on .....the Western world has its own grave problems as well, and whilst the do gooders all cry 'bring all the children to the UK'...,,..what about when they get to the UK > then it will be 'bring in the children's families' ...and whilst it will not be the fault of the children, it would not be surprising if suddenly those children had a number of 'relatives' who had never seen them before claiming to be 'relatives' .....sad sad situation ....WHY have not the hand wringers, wailers and leaders of nations in Europe not got together to plan the overthrow of Assad ....BUT this time (unlike the overthrow of Saddam Hussein) with a PLAN as to what happens afterwards ....i.e. re building lives of the refugees, rebuilding their country,infrastructure, peoples lives, schools, etc etc with assistance (better assist with that than foreign aid going to India for a space programmes, and some other country to start theatre groups (??????)....but recent history has unfortunately shown that despite the cries to 'do something' there is, and as yet no sign of, any plan .....as usual ! even the BREXIT vote has shown that the UK (most of the 'government' (is there any ? ) of which is on holiday .........had no plans in the event of that outcome ! Makes you weep, doesn't it !

The youth of suicide bombers has always been a significant factor, I think, though this child was exceptionally young. It seems to me that adolescents and very young adults are the ones most likely to fall for the martyr storyline. We all know that, at that age, you are likely to be a mass of seething emotions and grandiose ideas. Add to that the anger of the situation and the influence of the adults egging you on to do something about it, to perform a "glorious deed" and die a hero...It must be a heady mixture for someone young and gullible.

If you were older and the bombing scenario was described to you, I think that, even if you were willing to plan a bomb, your first response might be, "Yeah...and how do I escape? What? I don't? Nope, not doing that."

Using a child as a human bomb must be one of the most evil things that anyone could do.

The only way to overthrow Assad is to send in many ground troops. And the western world, realising how costly in every way that would be, has got cold feet. Starting with Obama.

It would be the honourable solution. But no one wants to pay the price.

There is no answer. The wailing and gnashing of teeth will have to go on.

But many suicide bombers are older, while many are late teens, there abd their are any in their 20s. What many of the sacrificial terrorists do have in common, especially those committing outrages in Europe, are serious mental health and drugs problems.

Do not forget that the men behind groups like ISIS are power crazed psychopaths who use the cloak of religion to 'justify' their pleasure in the destruction of human life and seeing people in abject fear of them. They have nothing but contempt for the tools they use; people, who because they can be seen as life's failures; taking drugs, mentally ill or with other problems, who are entirely and justifiably expendable.

France is allowing children to live in the Calais jungle! The lack of care concern by the French government is totally reprehensible. Surely they with us could come up with some comprehensive plan to help alleviate this problem? Is France, a civilised country unaware of these childrens plight, or just uncaring?