A/HRC/22/59 14. Government forces attacked civilians in Tremseh in the conduct of their military operations. The heavy bombardment of the town in the early hours of 12 July was indiscriminate, causing the destruction of civilian objects. There are reasonable grounds to believe that the arrest and extra-judicial execution of men and boys, following house-tohouse searches, and their identification by Government forces, amounts to the war crime of murder.d Government forces killed persons who were either hors de combat fighters or civilians taking no active part in hostilities. 15. There are reasonable grounds to believe that Shabbiha murdered persons who were hors de combat fighters or civilians, using knives and guns, spreading terror among the civilian population of Tremseh. The number of children among the casualties indicates that while not all those killed were necessarily civilians, a substantial number were, indicating that civilians were likely targeted. Government forces and Government affiliated militias perpetrated the war crime of murder. The 15 unaccounted persons documented raise the spectre of the occurrence of the crime of enforced disappearance, which may amount to the crime against humanity of enforced disappearance if committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against a civilian population. B. Jedaydet Artouz, 1 August 16. First-hand information was collected concerning events that took place on 1 August in Jedaydet Artouz, a town on the southern outskirts of Damascus. Jedaydet Artouz has a heterogeneous population of Sunni Muslims, Christians, Druze and Alawites. 17. According to interviewees, a massacre took place a few days after an incident in which FSA fighters assassinated a high-ranking officer, living in a neighbourhood adjacent to Jedaydet Artouz. In retaliation, army troops composed of hundreds of soldiers accompanied by tanks, armoured vehicles and heavy machine guns, launched a military operation in the town that lasted from 05:00 until the late afternoon on 1 August. During the operation, soldiers conducted house-to-house searches, mainly in the Sunni-majority southern parts of the city. 18. During the house searches, residents of Jedaydet Artouz said they heard sporadic fire in different locations of the city. Interviewees stated that Syrian army troops were raiding homes and detaining male residents, especially those belonging to families known for their anti-Government positions and who had participated in peaceful demonstrations. The commission received consistent accounts that Government forces looted shops and homes during the raid. 19. At around 17:00 when the army left, residents of the town discovered the bodies of approximately 60 male residents (all adults, except one), who were allegedly summarily executed, after being arrested by army troops. In one case, an interviewee stated that residents found a group of 17 dead bodies of adult males, who had been rounded up in a warehouse next to an agricultural field bordering the Sunni neighbourhood south-east Jedaydet Artouz. One eyewitness said that most of those who were found had their hands tied behind their backs and had been shot at a close range. Some had their T-shirts removed and pulled over to cover their heads. Other bodies were found across different locations in the town, and all appeared to have been summarily executed. 20. All the bodies that were found were taken to an area adjacent to a local mosque and buried shortly thereafter in a mass grave. d GE.13-10627 Article 8(2)(c)(i)-1, Rome Statute. 47