A/HRC/19/69 112. In its report, the League of Arab States referred to bombing of buildings, trains carrying fuel, vehicles carrying diesel oil and explosions targeting the police, members of the media and fuel pipelines. Without further disaggregating responsibility, the League concluded that some of the attacks had been carried out by the FSA, and others by other anti-Government armed groups. 113. The commission documented instances of gross human rights abuses committed by members of various FSA groups. 114. In Homs, FSA members were found to have tortured and executed suspected Shabbiha members in retaliation for abuses committed by Shabbiha or plain-clothed security officials posing as them. In late January 2012, in Karm Al-Zeitun, FSA members and others lynched a man suspected of working with the State security forces, and paraded his body on a pick-up truck through the streets. 115. In late December 2011, FSA members in Bab Amr captured two suspected Shabbiha members following an exchange of fire. The two men were beaten by the local population. In this instance, FSA members pulled the men away from the angry mob and took them for interrogation to an undisclosed location. 116. In November 2011, in Bab Amr, armed group members abducted a foreign media worker and mistreated him for several hours before releasing him. 117. There were also reports of FSA members in Homs taking security agents, their family members or foreign nationals of certain countries hostage to obtain the release of people detained by State forces. The FSA leadership acknowledged in a written exchange with the commission that FSA groups had indeed abducted foreign nationals, but described those captured as foreign fighters. 118. Some armed civilians in Homs, including armed civilians belonging to the FSA, sought to exact blood revenge for abuses by killing family members of security personnel or Shabbiha. The FSA leadership in Homs and also the local coordination committee denounced such collective reprisals and tried to contain them. 119. Credible reports indicated that members of FSA groups in other locations had tortured or summarily executed captured members of the armed forces or security forces. In mid-November 2011, members of the FSA near Talbiseh tortured a member of Military Intelligence during an interrogation. The captured man was beaten, whipped with a cable and threatened with a knife. In late November 2011, a FSA group from Rif Dimashq captured, tortured and killed a member of the security forces. 120. The commission highlights the fact that FSA members, including local commanders that have command responsibility, may incur criminal responsibility under international law. V. Conclusions and recommendations 121. The grave and ongoing human rights crisis in the Syrian Arab Republic is the consequence of a combination of factors, including a State that has failed to respond to the legitimate political, economic and social demands of its people and its position in the highly complex geopolitics of the region. 122. The response of the security apparatus to what started as peaceful dissent soon led to armed clashes. One year later, the Syrian Arab Republic is on the brink of an internal armed conflict. Diverging agendas within a deeply divided international community complicate the prospects for ending the violence. 21