GENEVA — In Syria's civil war, girls as young as nine have been raped and forced into sexual slavery. Children have been targeted by sniper fire and used as bargaining chips to extract ransoms. Those gruesome facts have been the focus of a new report by U.N.-backed investigators into the Syrian war, which for the first time looks solely on the plight of the children caught up in the conflict. The group, known as the Commission of Inquiry for Syria, has been scrutinizing and chronicling human rights violations since shortly after the conflict broke out in 2011. The investigators said in their report released Thursday that the abuse and violence against Syrian children goes well beyond just getting caught in the crossfire of warring sides.

Source: International New York Times January 16, 2020 11:37 UTC