Damascus: According to a United Nations report, Syrian troops are using children, executing them as "human shields" and forcing them to ride on top of government tanks to deter opposition attacks against rebels.
As per the report, children, as old as nine or eight years, were being tortured in detention, forced to fight and also made victims of sexual violence.
The United Nations branded the Syrian government as one of the worst offenders on its annual "list of shame" of conflict countries.
"In almost all recorded cases, children were among the victims of military operations by government forces, including the Syrian armed forces, the intelligence forces and the shabiha militia, in their ongoing conflict with the opposition, including the Free Syrian Army," the report pointed out.
The report estimates that about 1,200 children have died during the 15-month uprising against President Bashar al-Assad.
"Rarely, have I seen such brutality against children as in Syria, where girls and boys are detained, tortured, executed, and used as human shields," Radhika Coomaraswamy, UN special representative for children in armed conflict, said.
The children were "used by soldiers and militia members as human shields, placing them in front of the windows of buses carrying military personnel into the raid on the village," the report revealed.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said the report had revealed one of many "grave violations" against children.
"Most child victims of torture described being beaten, blindfolded, subjected to stress positions, whipped with heavy electrical cables, scarred by cigarette burns and, in one recorded case, subjected to electrical shock to the genitals," the report said.
The New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) said the UN Security Council should impose an arms embargo and other sanctions on the Assad government over its violations against children.
HRW quoted the Syria Violations Documentation Center, a network of Syrian activists, as saying that at least 1,176 children have been killed since February 2011.
It also said there were "credible allegations" that armed opposition groups, including the Free Syrian Army (FSA), are recruiting children as soldiers.