A/HRC/21/50 98. Accounts indicated that rape and other forms of sexual violence had been committed in two circumstances. The first was during house searches and at checkpoints by Government forces and Shabbiha; the second, in detention. In addition, in Homs, between late February and April, there were several reports of abduction and rape of women, and corroborated accounts of women forced to walk naked in the streets of Karm-Al Zeitoun in February. 99. Fifteen interviewees described incidents of sexual violence committed during house searches and at checkpoints during military operations in Homs between February and May, and in Al Haffe in June. Five interviewees detailed incidents of sexual violence in Zabadani in late February and in various locations in Hama governorate in April. The attacks were reportedly perpetrated by soldiers and Shabbiha. 100. The commission continued to receive reports of rape and sexual assault in detention centres, committed usually as part of torture and/or ill-treatment. Multiple reports were received of male detainees receiving electric shocks to their genitals during interrogations. 101. The commission finds reasonable grounds to believe rape and sexual assault were perpetrated against men, women and children by Government forces and Shabbiha members. Rape and sexual assault were also part of torture in official and unofficial detention centres. 102. Having previously determined that military operations such as those in Homs in February and March and in Al Haffe in June were part of a widespread or systematic attack against a civilian population, the commission finds that the rapes committed during these attacks, made with knowledge of the attacks, could be prosecuted as crimes against humanity. Violations of children’s rights22 H. 103. The commission conducted 168 interviews concerning alleged violations of children‘s rights. Of these, 30 interviewees were under the age of 18. In interviews, the adverse psychological and social impact of the violence on children was evident. 1. Government forces and Shabbiha 104. The commission recorded the killing of 125 children, mainly boys, after 15 February 2012. 105. Children were killed and injured during the shelling of towns and villages. During a visit to a hospital in Turkey, the commission saw a 2-year-old girl, severely injured in the June shelling of Azaz. There were also multiple reports of children killed and wounded by snipers. 106. Children were also killed during attacks on protests, such as the attack in Menaq village on 15 March, and in attacks on villages believed to be harbouring defectors or antiGovernment armed groups. There were multiple accounts of children killed during military ground operations and house searches (see annex V). Forty-one children were among those killed in Al-Houla on 25 May. Some were killed during shelling, but most appeared to have been shot at close range. 107. There were reports of the arbitrary arrest and detention of children. Children described having been beaten, whipped with electrical cables, burned with cigarettes and 22 18 See also annex X.