A/HRC/39/65 and disappeared by armed group members on 22 March. Numerous individuals also pointed out how suspected YPG supporters, former members of the civil administration and members of their families, journalists, activists and perceived supporters of the Government of the Syrian Arab Republic were targeted. 27. Those detained by FSA-affiliated groups were never told where they were being held, and often could not recognize their captors. Others described inhumane conditions of detention, including overcrowded cells and minimal food. The Commission is investigating reports of deaths in detention by Al-A’mshat armed group. 28. Numerous residents reported widespread looting and appropriation of civilian homes by members of armed groups when the latter entered Afrin city in March. Victims described how houses were looted to the point where they had been “stripped of furniture, electrical appliances and all decor”. Witnesses stated that Turkish troops were on occasion present in the vicinity where lootings took place, but had not acted to prevent them. Further reports were received on the looting of hospitals, churches and a Yazidi shrine. Regarding the latter, the Commission also received reports on the destruction of other Yazidi religious sites in attacks that appeared to have sectarian undertones. 29. Cars were also stolen from residents, who had to purchase them back for between $2,000 and $5,000. Some witnesses also reported that lootings were not carried out exclusively by members of armed group but also by citizens, in particular immediately after the fall of Afrin, reflecting how no actor was willing or able to uphold public order. Victims reported cases of looting to a newly established “military police”, which mainly comprised former FSA fighters, or to committees established by armed groups, both of which failed to offer any tangible restitution. 30. Beyond cases of looting, the Commission documented patterns of house appropriations, in particular from Kurdish owners who had fled clashes. Returnees were barred from their properties and informed by members of armed groups that their real or presumed support for the YPG precluded them from living in the area. Homes were then used by armed groups for military purposes, or as housing for fighters and their families. Fighters and their families who arrived from eastern Ghouta via Idlib after its evacuation (A/HRC/38/CRP.3, paras. 68–70) took over residences from Kurdish individuals who had fled. Confiscated homes appear to have been systematically marked by armed group members with graffiti. 31. The Commission was unable to confirm the exact extent to which Afrin or its environs were under the control of Turkish forces or armed groups at the time of writing. Members of various armed groups repeatedly committed the war crime of pillaging in Afrin, further seriously contravening the right to enjoyment of possessions and property. 10 If any armed group members were shown to be acting under the effective command and control of Turkish forces, the violations committed may be attributable to Turkish military commanders who knew or should have known about the violations. 11 Northern Homs governorate 32. Pro-government forces initially encircled northern Homs in February 2012, after which civilians were forced to subsist on locally produced food and the limited amount of goods transferred through government-controlled checkpoints. Government forces continued to deny sporadically the entry of vital foodstuffs and medicine throughout the period under review, rendering northern Homs hard to reach by humanitarian actors. Almost immediately after declaring a decisive victory over eastern Ghouta on 14 April, pro-government forces redoubled their efforts to recapture northern Homs, and Yarmouk camp and its environs (see paras. 41–46 below) by escalating aerial and ground attacks on 10 11 See for example The Prosecutor v. Germain Katanga, International Criminal Court, ICC-01/0401/07, 7 March 2014, paras. 925-957; see also Universal Declaration of Human Rights, art. 17. Jean-Marie Henckaerts and Louise Doswald-Beck, Customary International Humanitarian Law, Vol. I: Rules, International Committee of the Red Cross, 2005, rule 153. 7