Children recruited by regime and rebels in Syria, says UN study

The Assad regime and the Syrian rebels have recruited boys and girls under the age of 18 to their ranks, a new UN study has found.

They are used mostly as “suicide bombers or human shields,” in combat and support roles.

The report also details the regime’s abuse of boys it suspects are linked to opposition groups.

“There were a number of accounts of sexual violence against boys to obtain information or a confession by the state forces, largely but not exclusively by members of the state intelligence services and the Syrian armed forces,” the report stated.

“Child detainees, largely boys and as young as 14 years old, suffered similar or identical methods of tortures as adults, including electric shock, beatings, stress positions and threats and acts of sexual torture,” it said.

Among rebel ranks, the children are used for ferrying food and water and loading cartridges.

“From accounts received, child association with the Free Syrian Army is often linked to an older relative facilitating recruitment or in instances in which the child has lost all members of his or her family,” said the report.

The findings of the report were presented on Wednesday by UN special representative Leila Zerrougui, whose study covered 21 countries in which children were the victims of armed conflict. Children have been recruited, maimed or raped by armed groups in countries like  Afghanistan, Chad, Mali, Myanmar, Yemen, but children in Syria were suffering “maybe the heaviest toll” in the world, she said.

“They are killed, they are maimed, they are recruited, they are detained, they are tortured,” she told journalists in New York.

The Syrian civil war has so far claimed the lives of more than 70,000 people, according to UN figures, and has led to millions of Syrians fleeing their homes.