A/HRC/28/69
document A/HRC/25/65. The coordination and active participation of Government
institutions indicated that the attacks were conducted as a matter of institutional policy.
58.
The massacres and unlawful killings formed part of those attacks and constitute
crimes against humanity. Government forces also committed the war crime of murder and
has arbitrarily deprived people of life.
2.
Non-State armed groups
Anti-Government armed groups
59.
Anti-Government armed groups have killed civilians during ground attacks in Hama
governorate. They have also caused civilians deaths through indiscriminate shelling of
neighbourhoods, villages and towns controlled by the Government.
Ground attacks
60.
In mid-August 2014, fighters from an unidentified armed group entered a village in
the Al-Salamiyah countryside (Hama). Villagers fled at the sound of approaching gunfire.
The following day, residents returned and found the bodies of an elderly couple, who had
been too infirm to flee, and their daughter. They had been shot. The bodies had been cut
with a knife though it is unclear if those wounds were sustained before or after death.
Armed groups had reportedly shot and killed civilians travelling between Al-Qbaibat and
Al-Saboura in early 2014. It was not possible to identify the armed group to the
commission’s standard of proof.
Bombings and shelling
61.
Armed groups have launched indiscriminate attacks on areas under Government
control in Hama, Damascus, Dara’a, and Aleppo, killing civilians.
62.
Armed groups have increased their use of vehicle-borne and other improvised
explosive devices in Hama governorate. In August, two civilian men were killed by a
roadside bomb placed on the Al-Kafat – Taldara road. A few weeks later, in September,
another roadside IED was detonated as a car drove between Al-Kafat and Taldara. The
explosion killed a father and his child and severely injured the mother. On 24 September,
Jabhat Al-Nusra claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing which killed two people and
injured 10 others in Ain Amouda village.
63.
On 4 and 9 September 2014, an armed group fired rockets into villages in the AlGhab area (Hama) killing civilians. On 12 November, rockets fired from the direction of
Kafr Zeita struck a schoolyard in Karnaz (Hama), killing seven children.
64.
Armed groups holding territory in Damascus city and eastern Ghouta in Rif
Damascus have indiscriminately shelled neighbourhoods under Government control,
causing civilian casualties. On 31 July, two children were killed while standing on their
balcony in Karm Asmadi neighbourhood when they were hit by mortar fire. On 13 August,
a shell landed in a public park in Jaramana neighbourhood, killing three children. On 20
and 30 September, an armed group fired mortars into Douelaa neighbourhood, killing
civilians – including minors – on both occasions.
65.
IEDs were also placed on roads between villages in western Suweida western
countryside (As-Suweida). On 3 September, one exploded between Dama and Areeqah as a
bus drove past. Five civilians were killed. Armed groups around Busra Al-Sham (Dara’a)
shelled the town throughout 2014, killing civilians. On 26 December, a six-month-old baby
was reportedly killed by mortar fire into Zahra (Aleppo).
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