More: Trade Minister Abed Falah al-Sudani considered banning the toys because they look so realistic. However, given the seeming impossibility of the task, he shelved the idea

10-year-old Haider, has another reason to play with his toy gun

"I love it. I like holding it and going outside to kill evildoers. I like to go outside at night like my uncle (a member of the Mahdi Army)," said the boy wearing a ragged T-shirt.

In Sadr City, in the vast ghetto where Sadr is considered a hero and his militia calls the shots, children in their war games reflect the bitter sectarian divides -- one side gets to be Shiite militiamen, the other Sunni insurgents.

In other neighbourhoods, it's police versus "terrorists", or army versus Al-Qaeda, according to local news

Another vendor, Hassan, 27, runs a stall in Bab al-Sharji in the centre of Baghdad. He confirmed that guns are the all-time favourites with children, male or female.

"Children prefer guns to trains, balls or radios," he

Cripes! Not even the kids are innocent!

This seems incredibly stupid to me. Doesn't this father consider the danger his child exposes himself to by this irresponsible action? This looks like an accident just waiting to happen.

She may get shot by anyone who thinks that at night it does like the real thing.

She may get shot by anyone who thinks that at night it does like the real thing.

No kidding! That happens here (US) all the time when Police even "think" someone, child or not, has a weapon.

I wonder, how is the media going to label all those poor children of conflict over there and abroad? We had Generation-X. I guess they will be Generation-M-16.

Correction..."looks"