A/HRC/22/59 responsibility for the bombing of the stadium, claiming to have killed or wounded 200 soldiers. 103. The bombs were directed at military targets. It has not been possible to verify the fact and number of civilian casualties. Consequently, it has not been possible to determine whether the attack was disproportionate to the direct and concrete military advantage anticipated from the attack. 104. On 3 October, three suicide bombs exploding near Saadallah Al-Jabiri Square killing 48 people. The bombs affected the Officers’ club, a hotel and a café. The café bore the brunt of the bombing though a building within the Officers’ club complex was also ruined. The Government reported 48 deaths, with 122 injuries. Media reports did not indicate whether civilians were among the dead and injured. The Al-Nusra Front claimed responsibility for the attack. 105. There is currently insufficient information available to determine the lawfulness of this attack, but the commission notes with concern the fact that the suicide bombings, while they may have been directed at the Officers’ Club, occurred in a busy area of Aleppo, near to civilian locations such as the hotel and café. 106. A bomb exploded near the offices of the headquarters building of the General Federation of Trade Unions in Damascus on 4 November. The intended target was unclear though several military and security installations were in the area. There were no casualties; 11 people were lightly wounded by shattering glass. 107. Arabic media reported that the Ahfad Al-Rasoul Brigade had claimed responsibility. With no military target clearly selected and with damage done to a hotel and its civilian guests, this bombing constitutes an unlawful attack. 108. On 5 November, there was a suicide bombing at a rural development centre in Sahl Al-Ghab in Hama, reportedly being used by Government forces as a military base, killing two people. The Al-Nusra Front claimed responsibility for this attack. 109. A car bomb exploded in the Mezzeh 86, a predominantly Alawite neighbourhood in western Damascus on 5 November. Reports indicated that 11 people were killed and dozens injured. An anti-Government group called Seif Al-Sham claimed responsibility for the attack, saying that it targeted a meeting point for the army, police and Shabbiha. It is unclear whether this was the case. 110. Media reports did not specify whether civilians were among the dead and injured. There is currently insufficient information available to determine the lawfulness of this attack, the staging of such an attack in a civilian neighbourhood is deeply troubling. B. Failure to distinguish: locating military objectives in civilian areas 111. Anti-Government armed groups regularly use civilian objects such as schools as bases, accommodation or meeting points. By operating within such objects, antiGovernment armed groups are endangering the civilian population and violating their obligation under international humanitarian law to avoid locating military objectives within or near densely populated areas, to the extent feasible. 112. This was found to have occurred during: (i) the aerial bombardment of Tal Rifaat on 4 and 10 August, where the FSA had based in a nearby school; (ii) the shelling of Lajjah, a village in Dara’a which anti-Government armed groups were using as a base during the reporting period; and (iii) aerial attacks on Al-Qusayr, Homs where anti-Government armed groups based in residential houses. GE.13-10627 103