'Syrian soldiers are using children as human shields'

At least 30 people, among them children, were killed according to activists when government troops shelled a region in the east of Syria, as a new United Nations report accused Syrian soldiers of using children as human shields.

Shells rained down on areas in Deir al-Zour province after overnight protests to condemn the alleged massacres and the killing of children by Syrian troops across the country.

Activists posted on their websites footage that showed women wailing over the bodies of children in the area.

The attacks came in the wake of a newly-published UN report on children in armed conflicts that said that in Syria children as young as 8 years old have been victims of killing and maiming, arbitrary arrest, detention, torture, and sexual violence, and have been used as human shields.

The report - which quoted dozens of witnesses - said: "Boys and girls between the ages of 8 and 13 were forcibly taken from their homes and used by Syrian soldiers as human shields, placing them in front of the windows of buses carrying military personnel while they were raiding restive villages."

Human rights groups have estimated that as many as 1,200 children have been killed since the uprising started against President Bashar al-Assad in March 2011.

The United Nations branded the Syrian government as one of the worst violators of human rights on its annual "list of shame" of conflict countries, where children are killed, tortured and forced to fight.

The list included 52 governments and armed groups that recruit, kill or sexually attack children in armed conflicts across the globe, including Somalia and Afghanistan.

The London-based Syrian Observatory for Human rights said that violence has left more than 14,000 dead, including security personnel and rebels, since the uprising began.

Independent verification of reports out of Syria is difficult, due to a ban by the regime in Damascus on foreign journalists visiting restive areas.