A/HRC/21/50 commission documented that the bodies of people killed by snipers were often left where they fell, as no one risked retrieving them. i Al-Qusayr (Homs), Feb 2012j 37. Four interviewees described the city of Al-Qusayr being pinned down under sniper fire in February 2012. One male resident interviewed by the commission was hit on his way back from taking his wife and daughter to the doctor. He had stopped along the road to help some people to restart their car and was hit from behind. The bullet hit a nerve paralysing his left leg. Abdita (Idlib), 21 February 2012 38. Four women and 17 men having direct knowledge of the events in Abdita on 21 February 2012 were interviewed by the commission. Their testimonies described in detail the army‘s blockade of the entrances to the village that day and how they conducted house searches, apparently looking for persons implicated in an IED attack. In one welldocumented instance, the army entered the house known for hosting FSA members, took the men out to a neighbouring field, asked them about the IED and shot them when they did not receive an adequate response. One of the three survived and was interviewed by the commission. Another eyewitness stated that 15 persons, out of a total of 30 who died in the clashes that day, died from wounds that suggested execution. Relatives of the FSA leader Riad al-Assad, who is originally from Abdita, were apparently among those summarily executed. Legal conclusions 39. The commission finds that the individual instances of killing described above provide reasonable grounds to believe that Government forces and Shabbiha violated IHRL provisions protecting the right to life. Furthermore, many of the same killings met the definitional requirements of the war crime of murder.k 40. Additionally, the evidence indicated that many attacks were directed against civilians and civilian objects.l Although the Government‘s stated aim was to attack ―terrorists‖, the attacks were directed at neighborhoods, towns and regions with civilian populations. The commission therefore concludes that there are reasonable grounds to believe that the war crime of attacking civilians has been perpetrated in many instances. 41. There are reasonable grounds to believe that the documented incidents also constituted the crime against humanity of murder. In those towns and villages where there was a pattern of blockade, shelling, ground assault and house-to-house searches, the element of a widespread or systematic attack against a civilian population was met. The scale of the attacks, their repetitive nature, the level of excessive force consistently used, the indiscriminate nature of the shelling and the coordinated nature of the attacks led the commission to conclude that they were conducted pursuant to State policy. i j k l A more detailed discussion of the attack on Homs has been set out above. A more detailed discussion of the events in Al-Qusayr has been set out in annex VI. Rome statute, Art. 8 (2) (c) (i). See also annex II. See ICRC Customary IHL Study, Rule 1. Rome statute, Art. 8 (2) (e) (i). 75