A/HRC/28/69 An estimated five million people living in Damascus suffered shortages of water as a result, as water had to be re-routed from other localities to Damascus. 267. In Hama, armed group fighters burned wheat fields and olive groves in Al-Muzaira, targeting the Ismaili community perceived to be affiliated with the Government. Mortar fire indiscriminately fired by armed groups against Taldara set agricultural fields alight and destroyed what residents described to be 70% of their harvest. Armed group fighters continued to prevent farmers from accessing their land and harvest in Al-Ghab and around Al-Salamiyah by planting anti-personnel landmines and using sniper fire. 268. In As-Suweida, armed groups restricted farmer’s access to their agricultural fields in Leben. This has had a significant impact on the ability of the local Druze community to access their livelihoods. 269. Non-State armed groups increasingly targeted the lifelines of civilians, including power stations, electricity installations, and agricultural land. By attacking, destroying or rendering useless objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population, armed groups have violated their obligations under international humanitarian law and infringed upon the rights of civilians. Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham (ISIS) 270. Prior to the assault on Ayn al-Arab (Kobane), ISIS fighters deliberately cut off water and electricity supplies to the town. During the ground attack, the group pillaged livestock and destroyed the property of Kurdish civilians. Civilians living in areas under ISIS control lack access to basic medical care due to the destruction or occupation of medical facilities and restrictions imposed on the professional activities of medical personnel, resulting in a lack of qualified doctors. Accounts describe ISIS attempts to recruit and train civilians to become nurses and doctors to fill this gap and abducting doctors for the same purpose. 271. ISIS fighters violated their obligations under international humanitarian law in cutting off the supplies and installations indispensable to the survival of the civilian population in to Ayn al-Arab (Kobane). Through deliberately looting and destroying the property of Kurdish civilians, ISIS fighters appeared to conduct their operations with the objective of ensuring that Kurdish civilians could not return to their homes. Such acts, amounting to forcible displacement, amount to grave violations of international humanitarian law and war crimes, incurring individual criminal responsibility. ISIS has also failed in its obligations to provide adequate medical care to the sick and wounded and to civilians under its control. K. 1. Arbitrary and forced displacement Government forces 272. Over ten million Syrians, more than a third of the country’s population, have been displaced from their homes, fleeing to areas of relative safety inside Syria or crossing its borders to live as refugees. Many of these have fled the indiscriminate disproportionate aerial bombardments and shelling by Government forces. Such mass displacements occurred in the eastern countryside of Aleppo governorate, eastern Ghouta (Rif Damascus), and in the area of Sheikh Maskin and Nawa in central Dara’a. 273. By causing such large-scale displacements as a result of its unlawful attacks, the Government has failed in its obligations under international human rights law to protect civilians from such displacement. It has also failed to comply with its duties under customary international humanitarian law to take all possible measures to provide displaced civilians shelter, hygiene, health, safety and nutrition and to ensure that members of the same family are not separated. 61