Spare the children!
That is what so many have said for so long. But in Syria, the littlest ones are not, as we often say, just "caught in the crossfire".
They are being targeted!
"Childhood under fire," warns the Save the Children charity in a new report.
"A lost generation," lamented the UN children's fund Unicef on Tuesday.
"A war on childhood," regretted the War Child charity last year.
Syrian children are too young to understand the intricacies of a complex and brutal war fought in the name of their future.
But they know what childhood should feel like.
"You should tell her," insisted a young boy in a Damascus suburb when his frightened mother cautiously told me "everything is fine" not far from where soldiers manned a checkpoint.
"The helicopters attacked yesterday," he earnestly explained in a little person's voice and with a big person's courage.
"We are staying in our houses because we're really scared. We're begging them to stop."
But the war is not stopping; it is getting worse.
The latest report, from Save the Children, cites research that one in three children say they have been hit, kicked or shot at, as fighting between rebels and government forces has escalated over the past two years.
Brom BBC News
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