Save the Children said in a report marking two years of violence in Syria that two million children were innocent victims of the bloody conflict that the United Nations says has cost at least 70,000 lives.

These children were struggling to find enough food to eat and were therefore under constant risk of malnutrition and disease, said the report, adding many were unable to go to school.

Girls were being forced into early marriage in an effort to protect them from the perceived threat of sexual violence.

“Children are increasingly being put directly in harm’s way as they are being recruited by armed groups and forces,” said Save the Children.

Source of pride

“For many children and their families, this is seen as a source of pride. But some children are forcibly recruited into military activities, and in some cases children as young as eight have been used as human shields.”

One in three children reported having been hit, kicked or shot at, said the report entitled ‘Children Under Fire’, citing research carried out among refugee children by Turkey’s Bahcesehir University.

Thousands of children in Syria face malnutrition and millions were forced from their homes and live in parks, barns and in some cases caves, it said.

“For millions of Syrian children, the innocence of childhood has been replaced by the cruel realities of trying to survive this vicious war,” said Carolyn Miles, the head of Save the Children.

“Many are now living out in the open, struggling to find enough to eat, without the right medicine if they become sick or injured.

Lives at stake

“As society has broken down, in the worst cases, hunger, homelessness and terror have replaced school for some of these young people. We cannot allow this to continue unchecked; the lives of too many children are at stake.”

The British charity called for all parties to the conflict to allow access to conflict zones and for governments to deliver on pledges to fund a $1.5 billion (Dh5.5 billion) humanitarian appeal for Syria.

The uprising was sparked in March 2011 by the arrest and torture of children and adolescents accused of painting anti-regime graffiti in the southern city of Dara’a, which became a flashpoint of deadly protests.