A/HRC/33/55 27. On 23 May, a series of suicide bombings and detonations of vehicle borne improvised explosive devices killed at least 120 persons and injured another 200 in Jableh and Tartous, Latakia. While both cities are regime strongholds and Latakia hosts a Russian airbase, there are no indications that the attacks were directed towards a military target. Rather, the attacks targeted hospitals and a bus stop, and seem to have been a reaction to the loss of territory that ISIL had suffered in the preceding months. 28. In areas controlled by ISIL, civilians bear the brunt of explosive devices, as the group plants landmines in areas under its control, including as it retreats from lost territory. The Commission received reports of civilians being killed and injured by ISIL landmines in March and April in Al-Mabrouka, Hasakah; Tal Akhdar and Derb Hasan, Ar-Raqqah; and Merweh, Aleppo. 29. After a period of calm, anti-Government armed groups have resumed shelling of the Al-Jamiliyah neighbourhood in Aleppo city, resulting in civilian casualties. A resident of the neighbourhood recounted how on 28 April “rockets came from all directions like rain”, killing at least three residents and causing panic and chaos among the population. The rockets hit a queue of people who were buying food, and locations next to a mosque and a school. 30. The Commission continues to investigate allegations of use of chemical weapons. It has received reliable information on the use of chlorine gas in the Sheikh Maqsoud neighbourhood of Aleppo city on 5 April, when four persons, including two civilians, were taken to the hospital with symptoms of chlorine gas inhalation. On the same day, Sheikh Maqsoud was under heavy shelling for several hours. A resident described how a rocket killed six members of his family, including his wife and three children, in their home. 31. On 19 July, at least 73 civilians, many of them children, were reportedly killed near Minbij, Aleppo, during international coalition air strikes against ISIL. The Commission takes note that the United States has opened a formal investigation into the killing of civilians on 19 July, the same day it carried out air strikes against ISIL positions. B. Living under siege 32. Nearly 600,000 civilians in Damascus, Rif Damascus, Dayr Az-Zawr, Homs and Idlib governorates continue to suffer brutal conditions created by protracted sieges. While government forces are responsible for the majority of sieges countrywide, ISIL has surrounded the Government-held neighbourhoods of Dayr Az-Zawr city since June 2014 and Jabhat al-Nusra, acting alongside anti-Government armed groups, encircled the Shia enclaves of Foua’a and Kafria, Idlib, in March the following year. More than 6 million civilians currently struggle to survive in besieged and hard-to-reach communities. Despite some improvements in humanitarian access to besieged areas — achieved through the cessation of hostilities agreement — the absence of sustained cooperation by parties to the conflict continues to cause acute malnutrition and, increasingly, death. 33. International law prohibits the use of starvation as a method of warfare, as well as the denial to civilians of safe passage from besieged areas. 34. Government forces have laid siege to the western Ghouta suburb of Daraya, Rif Damascus, since November 2012. Residents described subsisting on harvest crops and living without electricity over the years since. Water lines to Daraya were cut in 2013, forcing inhabitants to use unsanitary wells for both hygiene and consumption. As in Douma, eastern Ghouta, medicines for chronic illnesses were not available. In Douma, parts of which have been besieged since 2013, residents recounted how Syrian forces allowed entry of no more than 25 per cent of required medical supplies. Often, remaining physicians in both areas are forced to practice outside their areas of specialty. 7