The United Nations has accused both sides to the Syria conflict of grave violations against children.

Children caught in the Syrian war are being recruited as child soldiers, used as human shields, and tortured, according to a new UN report.

The report, released on Tuesday, found that in the early stages of the nearly three-year conflict, the Syrian regime troops were largely responsible for grave violations against children.

The UN did not receive reports of formal recruitment of children by regime forces, but troops and pro-regime militia reportedly intimidated and seized young males, some under 18, to join them at checkpoints and during raids in pro-regime and contested areas.

The UN chief Ban Ki-moon said regime forces "were responsible for the arrest, arbitrary detention and torture of children for their perceived or actual association with the opposition, and for using children as human shields."

Witnesses have told UN investigators that the majority of children were held in the same cells as adults and that children as young as 11 were tortured.

The report found that some of the treatment children were subjected to included "beatings with metal cables, whips and wooden and metal batons; electric shocks, 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."

In one account in 2011, regime forces used at least eight children as hostages against the opposition to surrender. The UN says it does not know their fate.

A first round of peace talks in Geneva concluded on Friday without progress towards ending Syria's war or reducing the violence, which regularly kills more than 100 people a day.

The regime and opposition parties are due to meet for a second round of negotiations next week.

According to its estimates, more than 100,000 people have been killed in Syria, including more than 10,000 children.

More than two million people - mostly women and children - have fled Syria's conflict, which began in March 2011 with popular protests against President Bashar al-Assad and spiraled into war after a brutal crackdown by security forces.

PHOTO CAPTION

Children play in the old city of Aleppo February 4, 2014.

Source: Aljazeera.com