A/HRC/33/55 III. Resurging battlefield violence A. Living under fire 21. In areas where it applied, the cessation of hostilities initially resulted in a significant decrease in incidents of armed violence. As of late March, a resurgence of violence, including aerial bombardments and shelling attacks, resulted in the loss of hundreds of lives and massive destruction of infrastructure indispensable for civilian life. In areas where the agreement did not apply — areas controlled by ISIL or Jabhat al-Nusra — attacks continued unabated. 22. Aerial bombardments in densely populated areas have a devastating impact on civilians, both in terms of the human toll and the constant fear for their lives under which civilians are forced to live. On 31 March, strikes by pro-Government forces in Deir alAsafir, an area outside Damascus controlled by anti-Government groups, hit a school, a hospital and a mosque. At least 31 people were killed, including 3 children and their parents. Several children were killed in the hospital after being evacuated from the school. The strikes caused extensive damage to the hospital, the school, the mosque and several homes. 23. Venues essential to the survival of the civilian population were the object of aerial attacks in opposition-held areas. An attack on a shop on 19 April in Kafr Nabl, Idlib, killed seven people, including three children and shoppers in a nearby fish market. Within minutes another attack in Maarat al-Numan, only 12 kilometres away, killed 37 persons in a vegetable market. On 14 June, pro-Government forces bombed Al-Hajj bridge, which connects eastern Aleppo to western Aleppo, killing at least 4 persons and injuring another 15, including women and children. 24. Internally displaced persons are among the most vulnerable to violations. Having fled from their homes to seek safety, many find themselves under attack in the camp where they sought refuge. On 30 January, pro-Government forces fired rockets to Aubin camp in Latakia, killing two people. On the same day, the Al-Yamedia camp, also in Latakia, was shelled. While there were no casualties, most of the camp’s residents fled, fearing future attacks. On 2 June, shelling of the Al-Yamedia camp border crossing resulted in the death of two internally displaced men and injured a worker from a non-governmental organization. There is no information suggesting that there were military targets inside or in the vicinity of the camps. 25. In Government-held areas, civilians were terrorized by ISIL attacks. From February to June, indiscriminate attacks by ISIL claimed unprecedented numbers of casualties. The attacks, all carried out using vehicle borne improvised explosive devices and suicide bombers, invariably took place in crowded civilian areas. On 26 January, the detonation of a vehicle borne improvised explosive device at a security checkpoint, followed by a suicide bombing among the crowd that gathered after the first explosion, killed 22 persons and left another 100 injured in the Homs residential neighbourhood of Al-Zahra. 26. On 21 February, a series of explosions in Sayda Zaynab, outside Damascus, and car bombings in Homs killed 140 people. The explosions took place when shoppers were out and children were leaving school. An eyewitness described scenes of panic as the smoke of the explosions dissipated and survivors saw the carnage around them. The attack followed a double suicide attack by ISIL on Sayda Zaynab on 31 January that killed 40 civilians. The first explosion took place at a bus station and the second in a residential area. 6

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