A/HRC/22/59 were destroyed. The house of the Danoun family was directly hit, killing 20 family members. 21. According to interviewees who were residents of Azaz and who witnessed the bombardment on 15 August, the FSA had occupied two positions in Azaz, the former prison building and the former office of the Ba’ath Party. 22. According to UNITAR/UNOSAT, satellite imagery (see Figure 1), collected on 13 August and 17 August 2012, shows the likely location of a munitions impact (see Figure 2). The imagery shows that the impacts caused the total destruction of at least six structures and the partial destruction and serious damage of 5–10 additional proximate structures. According to UNITAR/UNOSAT analysis, the pattern of destruction visible from satellite imagery is consistent with reports indicating that one or more air dropped munitions impacted the site. Further, UNITAR/UNOSAT identified imagery that shows a nearby cemetery possibly with 20 bodies prepared for burial on 17 August 2012 (see Figure 3). 23. Recorded accounts indicate that the town of Azaz was deliberately targeted in an indiscriminate manner from the Rasm Al-Aboud base north of Aleppo, operated by the 24th Division of the Syrian Air Force. 24. There are reasonable grounds to believe that the attack on Azaz was indiscriminate. In particular, the bombardment of the Danoun family home, which killed 20 members of the family, is indicative of a failure to take precautions in attack and verify targets. As recorded accounts indicate, the FSA had established itself in identifiable locations, which could have been targeted without causing such excessive loss of civilian life. The intended targeting of Azaz by the 24th Division of the Syrian Air Force without discriminating between military and civilian targets is a gross violation of international humanitarian law. Tal Rifaat 25. Since Tal Rifaat came under FSA control in May 2012, the town has been shelled and subjected to aerial bombardment on an almost daily basis from Menag military airport approximately 5km north of Tal Rifaat. Since late July, Tal Rifaat has come under increasing aerial bombardment from fighter jets. 26. On 4 August, the house of the Elbaw family was hit around 6:00 by a “barrel bomb” dropped from a fighter jet, killing seven persons, including women and children. Information was collected from multiple individuals who helped those wounded in the attack and collected the bodies of those killed. Consistent accounts emphasised the devastation of the strike on the Elbaw family home. The individuals killed in the strike were decapitated and had limbs severed; one interviewee said, “It was impossible to recognise the bodies.” On 10 August, a fighter jet dropped a “barrel bomb” on a residential house in Tal Rifaat, killing eight persons, among them an elderly man. The “barrel bomb” also hit nearby houses, killing 16 persons, among them four children and five women. These residential areas were all located near Al-Shaheed Mohamed Aboud School, which the FSA had been using as accommodation. 27. In late July and early August, the market place and commercial areas in Tal Rifaat were also hit by rockets, killing civilians who were going about their daily activities. 28. The commission was unable to ascertain whether the aerial bombardment of the Elbaw family house was excessive in relation to the concrete and direct overall military advantage of attacking the nearby school, which was used by the FSA, and is thus unable to find sufficient grounds that the attack was disproportionate. The attacks on the market place and commercial areas in Tal Rifaat, however, are in violation of the obligation to do everything feasible to verify that targets are military in nature and distinguish civilian from military objectives. GE.13-10627 91

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