The United Nations on Tuesday accused Syrian troops of using children as "human shields," as UN chief Ban Ki-moon demanded access to the town of Al-Heffa amid fears of a new "massacre" by regime forces.
Branding Damascus as one of the worst offenders on its annual "list of shame" of conflict countries, the UN said in a report that Syrian children as young as nine had been victims of killing and maiming, arbitrary arrest, detention, torture and ill-treatment, including sexual violence.
"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, told AFP before releasing the report.
