A/HRC/27/60 directed to Tishreen Military Hospital to collect the death certificate, but could not retrieve the body. In March, a family visited the Qaboun Military Police, seeking the rights to visit a relative detained in November 2011. They were directed to Tishreen Military Hospital, where they received documentation stating that their relative had been detained in Sednaya Prison and had died of a heart condition in August 2013. The body was not returned. On 9 May, an elderly man was arrested trying to cross into Lebanon. Four days later, his wife received a call from the municipal authorities in Damascus informing her that she could collect her husband’s body from Tishreen Military Hospital. She was too frightened to go. Other military hospitals, notably Mezzeh Military Hospital, also known as Hospital No. 601, also provided death certificates to families. 24. In mid-2013, a 12-year-old boy was arrested in Damascus after speaking with his cousin, a member of an armed group. The family hired a lawyer, who determined that the boy had been held in Military Security Branch 235. On their taking the matter to court, the judge informed them that the boy was at a private hospital. When they arrived there, they were told their son was dead. His body bore marks of severe torture, including electrocution. 25. Other families were informed of the death of their relatives by former detainees. There has been no official recognition of those deaths and no return of the bodies, making them impossible to confirm. Multiple reports of deaths in custody in Damascus between March 2011 and December 2013 were also received. 26. A preliminary review and forensic analysis has been conducted of 26,948 photographs allegedly taken between 2011 and 2013 in government detention facilities. Among them are photographs of case files and deceased detainees showing signs of torture and severe malnourishment. Certain elements — such as the location identified in some photographs as Military Hospital No. 601 in Damascus, the methods of torture, and the conditions of detention — support the commission’s long-standing findings of systematic torture and deaths of detainees. Investigations are ongoing, with findings largely reliant on the identification of further metadata. 27. Government forces encircling the besieged area of eastern Ghouta (Rif Damascus) shot and killed civilians attempting to leave. In March, civilians, including women and children, hearing the road was open, left Al-Hajar al-Aswad. They were carrying a white flag. As they moved to within 500 metres of a government checkpoint, a sniper shot and killed one woman, forcing the group to retreat. In April, a 14-year-old boy attempting to leave eastern Ghouta to look for food was shot and killed at Al-Muhayam checkpoint. 28. Government forces perpetrated unlawful killings as part of a widespread attack directed against the civilian population. The attacks included widespread shelling and bombardment of civilian-inhabited localities and the targeting of civilians for arrest, detention and disappearance on the basis of their association or perceived opposition to the Government. The coordination and active participation of Government institutions indicated that the attacks were conducted as a matter of institutional policy. The unlawful killings formed part of those attacks and constitute crimes against humanity. Government forces also committed the war crime of murder and arbitrarily deprived people of life. 2. (a) Non-State armed groups Anti-Government armed groups 29. In Al-Mataiyyeh (Dara’a), the Islamic Front killed several men suspected of collaborating with the Government. In March, a man was abducted from his house. His body was found later the same day, shot in the chest. On 20 May, another man was held by the Islamic Front, accused of stealing from an Al-Yarmouk Brigade fighter. His body was 6