A/HRC/25/65 82. Children have been detained and tortured by some armed groups. A 14-year-old boy stated that he had been tortured by Ahrar Al-Sham in Ar Raqqah in July in an attempt to extract information about his uncle. 83. Children have been killed in indiscriminate shelling by armed groups. On 5 October, a 13-year-old boy and his friend were killed by a mortar attack while in their schoolyard in Nubul (Aleppo). On 31 October, a mortar attack on a school in Damascus killed a girl. 84. Non-State armed groups have perpetrated the war crime of enlisting and using children below the age of 15 to participate actively in hostilities, and have recruited and used children under the age of 18 years in hostilities contrary to the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child. They also committed the war crime of torture on children. Children’s right to education has been denied by the use of schools as military bases and training camps. IV. A. Violations concerning the conduct of hostilities Unlawful attacks 85. Indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks – predominantly shelling and aerial bombardments – caused mass civilian death and injuries. Unlawful attacks continue to be the primary reason for internal displacement and refugee flows. 1. (a) Government forces and pro-government militia Shelling and aerial bombardment 86. Across the country, the Government shelled civilian areas with artillery, mortars and tank fire. In some areas, aerial bombardment by helicopters and jet fighters was a daily occurrence. There was a marked increase in the use of highly imprecise and lethal barrel bombs dropped into urban areas from helicopters at high altitudes. The use of barrel bombs in this manner is indiscriminate (see annex VI). 87. Government forces fiercely bombarded contested civilian-inhabited areas of strategic importance. Aleppo, Damascus, Dara’a, Idlib and Ar Raqqah governorates came under sustained attack. 88. Attacks were not directed at distinct military objectives. In areas where armed group fighters were present, government forces treated clearly distinct military objectives located in densely populated areas as a single target. Area bombardment spreads terror among the civilian population and is prohibited under international humanitarian law. Government forces did not issue warnings prior to attack. 89. Aleppo governorate was the subject of intense indiscriminate attack. Aleppo city suffered bombardments throughout the period under review, culminating in an ongoing campaign of barrel bombing, which caused hundreds of civilian deaths and injuries, including the loss of limbs. Government forces fired mortars and missiles in Azaz in July. In August, dozens of civilians, including women and children, were killed by missiles fired by government jets. On 26 August, civilians, predominantly children, were killed in an incendiary bomb attack on a school in Urem Al-Koubra. September and October saw concentrated aerial bombardments, including missiles and barrel bombs, on Minbij, AlSafirah and Tal Hasel. The camp for displaced persons near Al-Safirah was attacked with barrel bombs in early October, causing many civilian deaths. Between November 2013 and January 2014, towns in Aleppo, including Abu Taltal and Maarat Al-Arteeq, were hit by 14