UN Report:
// More than 10,000 children have been killed in the Syrian civil war, the United Nations says, while many more are subjected to "unspeakable" suffering, including rape, torture and recruitment for combat.
More than 4,000 children have also been forced to flee their homes during the three-year conflict, according to a report released this week to the Security Council and .
Many more are the victims of the use of heavy weapons by government forces and allied militias in their fight with rebels who oppose the regime of president Bashar al-Assad, the report says.
However, it adds, both sides in the conflict are guilty of abusing and misusing children, with even the Free Syrian Army – the so-called moderate opposition – recruiting them for combat roles.
The report says methods of torture inflicted on children include beatings with metal cables, whips and metal batons; electric shock, including to the genitals; the ripping out of fingernails and toenails; sexual violence, including rape or threats of rape; mock executions; cigarette burns; sleep deprivation; solitary confinement; and exposure to the torture of relatives.
It cites a 16-year-old boy as saying he witnessed his 14-year-old male friend being sexually assaulted and then killed. //
// However, opposition groups had increasingly engaged in such acts in 2013 owing to increased "access to heavy weapons and the use of terror tactics". //