A/HRC/37/72 residents and individuals on site after the airstrike and concluded that the school had been housing internally displaced families since 2012. Of more than 200 residents in the school, 150 were killed. The Commission identified 12 survivors, several of whom had sustained serious injuries, including severe burns and loss of limbs. Among the survivors there were four women and six children, the youngest of who was a 10-month-old baby. 40. During a briefing of journalists on 28 March 2017, the Combined Joint Task Force established by the international coalition took responsibility for the strike, claiming that it had targeted 30 ISIL fighters whom it claimed were using the school. The Task Force stated that it could not corroborate that the school was used by internally displaced persons. 41. Information gathered by the Commission does not support the claim that 30 ISIL fighters were in the school at the time of the strike, nor that the school was otherwise being used by ISIL. Rather, the status of casualties and the nature of the Al-Badiya building is widely divergent from the international coalition’s assessment. Information that residents of the school were internally displaced families, including a large number of women and children, and that the school had been used to shelter internally displaced persons since 2012 should have been readily available to the coalition’s targeting team. The Commission therefore concludes that the international coalition should have known the nature of the target and failed to take all feasible precautions to avoid or minimize incidental loss of civilian life, injury to civilians and damage to civilian objects, in violation of international humanitarian law. The subsequent investigation conducted by the international coalition should have been able to identify the high number of civilian casualties resulting from this incident. 2. Ground operations of the Syrian Democratic Forces 42. As part of forced conscription campaigns in areas under its control, the Syrian Democratic Forces continued to conscript men and children for military service throughout the reporting period. Conscripts, including children as young as 13, receive basic training before being deployed to active frontlines. In July 2017, two boys, aged 15 and 16, enlisted with the Syrian Democratic Forces in Tabaqah (Raqqah). The youngest subsequently sustained an arm injury in battle. In another instance, one Raqqah resident who had fled the city in mid-July 2017 was stopped with his family upon arrival in the territory held by the Syrian Democratic Forces and interrogated by a Kurdish teenage boy in uniform. Although less frequent, girls have also been recruited; a teenage girl was recruited by the Syrian Democratic Forces in Raqqah in October 2017. The Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict, which the Syrian Arab Republic adopted in 2003, sets — without reservation — 18 years as the minimum age for direct participation in hostilities, recruitment into armed groups and compulsory recruitment into armed forces by governments. 43. The Commission received reports that the Syrian Democratic Forces asked returnees to Tall Abyad (Raqqah) to volunteer one man from each family for military service, which, in effect, prevented some families from going back to their homes. In other instances, families have opted to move away from areas held by the Syrian Democratic Forces to avoid reprisals, including arrest, for refusing conscription. Forced conscription of men has also been reported in internally displaced persons camps, and some men have been arrested for refusing to join the Forces. 44. Journalists and activists have been intimidated and arrested for reporting on alleged violations committed by the Syrian Democratic Forces and the international coalition in Raqqah city, Tall Abyad and Tabaqah. In several instances, the Forces arrested and detained relatives of the wanted activists for periods of up to six weeks in order to obtain information about their whereabouts and pressure the activists to come forward. The Syrian Democratic Forces also arrested relatives of members of the Free Syrian Army and ISIL for interrogation. Several of those detained were women and children, including a 16-year-old girl and a 10-year-old boy. Family members reported being denied information on the detainees, including the location of the detention facility and the reason for their detention. Some male detainees were reportedly beaten and burnt with cigarettes and did not receive medication for chronic illnesses such as diabetes. 10