A/HRC/27/60 anymore”. Doctors working in field hospitals in Aleppo regularly treat minors injured in combat. 91. Parents explained that children in Al-Sukkari neighbourhood, Aleppo city, who joined armed group battalions around the age of 15 were motivated by poverty and desperation. Some armed groups actively recruit children. A fighter from the Al-Abbas battalion operating in Al-Haydaria (Aleppo) explained, “often young boys are braver and cleverer than adult fighters”. 92. Anti-Government armed groups also used children in a variety of unarmed roles, including as cooks, informants, first responders and porters. Fighters stated that children who were caught acting as informants were often killed or detained by Government forces. Armed groups have violated the prohibition on recruitment and use of children under 18 as fighters and in support roles. The Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict bans armed groups from recruiting or using children under 18 in direct hostilities. By conscripting or enlisting children under 15, including for support roles, the groups have committed a war crime. 93. Armed groups’ use of schools for military purposes has endangered children and led to their injury and death. Ahrar Al-Sham continued to occupy the Al-Thawra Elementary School in Al-Sukkari, Aleppo city, which has been closed since the group took control of the building. That deprives children of access to education and endangers the educational facility. Ansar Al-Aqida uses a building that is part of the same school complex as Ain Jalout School, as a barracks for 50 fighters.7 94. There was a clear pattern of targeting schoolyards.8 Al-Thaqafi School on 19 March and Al-Manar Armenian School were targeted on 15 April. Children from areas in Damascus repeatedly shelled by anti-Government armed groups exhibited nervousness, anxiety and clear signs of distress and trauma. (b) Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham 95. ISIS has established training camps to recruit children into armed roles under the guise of education. According to an account about an ISIS training camp in Al-Bab (Aleppo), ISIS actively recruited children from the ages of 14 or 15 to undergo the same training as adults, offering financial rewards. At the camps, the children recruited received weapons training and religious education. The existence of such camps seems to indicate that ISIS systematically provides weapons training for children. Subsequently, they were deployed in active combat during military operations, including suicide-bombing missions. In Ar Raqqah, children from the age of 10 are recruited and trained at ISIS camps. In the recruitment and use of children under 18, ISIS has violated international humanitarian and human rights law. In using children below the age of 15, the group has committed a war crime. 96. The spread of ISIS across the north of the Syrian Arab Republic has significantly affected the presence and operations of humanitarian agencies and actors. A mother who used to live in Jandaris (Aleppo) explained that, owing to attacks by ISIS, vaccination campaigns had ceased. Without access to medical care, she had fled the Syrian Arab Republic, concerned for the health of her children. 7 8 See annex IV. See annex IV. 15