Alarm and outrage have followed the release of a chilling United Nations report which describes the exploitation and abuse of Syrian children during the nation's ongoing political turmoil.
Children as young as nine-years-old have been killed, maimed, tortured, sexually abused and even used as human shields, according to the report on children and armed conflict that came out Monday.
The UN report, which faults both the government and rebels for abusing children, has fuelled international condemnation and renewed calls for greater humanitarian access to the country.
Aid agency Save the Children Canada referred to the report as "shocking and deeply worrying" and is demanding that anyone involved in atrocities be held to account.
"All parties must now allow unhindered humanitarian access to help young people and their families," the agency said in a statement issued Tuesday.
Almost every case of violence, according to the UN report, came at the hands of the government forces including the Syrian armed forces, the intelligence forces and the shabiha militia. Rebels, however, were also alleged to have recruited children for their cause.
The UN document's release comes as activists embedded in Syria report more violence; this time in the eastern city of Deir el-Zour, where at least 10 people are said to have died after Syrian forces hit the city with mortar shells.
UN envoy Kofi Annan has asked governments to "twist arms" to stop the escalating violence, but similar requests in the past have failed to change the situation on the ground.
Forces loyal to President Bashar Assad shelled rebel-held cities and villages over the weekend, killing at least 38 people and defying an Annan-brokered ceasefire plan.
Annan didn't specify which countries he'd like to pressure the Assad regime, though Russia, China and Iran are thought to be Syria's closest allies.
Thirteen thousand people have died since the Syrian conflict began in March 2011, according to figures from Annan's spokesperson Ahmad Fawzi.
Diplomats and lawmakers have been trying, with little measurable effect, to get the feuding parties in Syria to lay down their arms and negotiate. Countries such as Canada and Britain have leaned towards sanctions, rather than foreign military intervention.
In the United States, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland recently expressed concern about reports that the Syrian regime "may be organizing another massacre."
Her worry follows an assault on villages in the Houla region, north of Homs, in late May that resulted in the grisly slaying of more than 100 people, including 34 women and 49 children.
However, as CTV Middle East Bureau Chief Martin Seemungal reports, it's difficult to pinpoint the source of new reports indicating that another massacre is imminent.
Speaking with Â鶹´«Ã½ Channel on Tuesday, he said that both sides involved in the Syrian conflict are doing their best to portray their opponent in a negative light.
Most recently, the regime has released audio tapes indicating militants from outside Syria have ordered rebels to conduct a massacre and blame it on the Assad government.
"Even in the Houla massacre, there were questions raised as to whether or not rebels were involved in this to make the government look bad," Seemungal noted.
Addressing those allegations, Seemungal stressed that it's "it's very difficult to get confirmation, but it does indicate that both sides are determined to make the other look as bad as possible."
