REPORTING FROM KABUL, AFGHANISTAN -- Six months ago, in a moving ceremony held during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, President Hamid Karzai went on national television to pardon about two dozen young boys, the youngest only 8, who had been caught trying to carry out suicide attacks. On Monday, authorities in Kandahar province reported that two of the children, a pair of 10-year-olds, had been rearrested last week, apparently intending once again to carry out bombings.

Provincial spokesman Zalmay Ayubi said the two boys each had a vest full of explosives when they were detained along with three adult militant suspects, and that they told intelligence officers they had been recruited for suicide missions.

A statement from provincial authorities in Kandahar quoted one of the boys, named Azizullah, as saying that the pair had undergone madrassa training in Pakistan, and that mullahs told them that when they set off their bombs, they would be unharmed by the blast.

The other child, called Nasibullah, told authorities he had been taught how to detonate a vest full of explosives. "They showed me how to press the button in my hand," he said, according to the statement issued by the provincial government, which cited officials from the National Directorate for Security, the country's main intelligence agency.