A/HRC/31/68 cleric affiliated with Jabhat al-Nusra warning Sunni soldiers to defect or to face a similar fate. 108. In October, the remains of 22 men belonging to the minority Murshidi Muslim sect were discovered in the Al-Ghab valley of Hamah, an area against which Jabhat al-Nusra and anti-government armed groups had launched a coordinated attack in August. All victims bore signs of severe torture, and many were found with their hands bound and teeth pulled. It is unclear whether the dead were civilians or captured fighters, and the extent to which their religious background motivated the attack. 109. ISIS continues to attack basic individual liberties of those residing in the areas they control by ruthlessly imposing strict interpretations on matters of faith and practice. While their regulations are rigidly imposed on all those who live in their “caliphate”, regardless of belief, they fall most heavily on those not adhering to Sunnism, and on secularists. As “people of the Book”, Christians are allowed to live with the group’s conception of its socalled “Islamic State”, but under stringent conditions, including the payment of a jiyza tax, the removal of crosses, and the destruction of statues and shrines. 110. When Christian communities seek the protection of opposing forces, as did Assyrian Christians living in villages along the Khabur River (Hasakah) from YPG in February 2015, ISIS attacked, turning the area into a front line. During the assault, the terrorist group kidnapped between 220 and 250 Assyrian civilians, including women and children. In early October, it released a video showing the execution of three male captives. In November, 37 elderly civilians were released; in January, an additional 16, including eight children, were reportedly released. At least 60 Assyrians kidnapped in Hasakah are still held by ISIS. 111. ISIS has further targeted the Assyrian Christian community of Al Qaryatayn. In May 2015, Father Jacques Mourad and two others were kidnapped and taken to Ar Raqqah. All were urged to convert to Islam or face death. When ISIS seized Al Qaryatayn in August, it kidnapped 200 Assyrian Christians. The group was forced to live under a subjugated legal and social status. Father Mourad was later transferred to Qaryatayn. While he and some others have since escaped, the remaining Assyrian Christian community are prevented from traveling outside territory by ISIS. 112. In several public statements, ISIS declared that it did not recognize the right of the Yazidi religious minority to exist inside its “caliphate”. Thousands of Yazidi women and girls were captured from Sinjar (Iraq) by ISIS in August 2014 and brought to the Syrian Arab Republic, where they are held in sexual slavery, bought and sold like chattel, and subjected to extreme sexual and physical violence. ISIS also forcibly recruits captured Yazidi boys, some as young as seven years of age. 113. ISIS continues to target sexual minorities for execution. In August, the terrorist group released a video showing two men being thrown from a building in Tadmur as punishment for allegedly committing homosexual acts. 114. The Asayish, a civil policing force operating in the Syrian Kurdish regions, has arbitrarily arrested Kurdish political activists. In December, Asayish personnel raided the premises of a non-governmental organization in Afrin (Aleppo), arresting 22 staff members and confiscating files and laptop computers. Detainees were questioned about the nature of their professional engagements. The arbitrary arrest of journalists and political opponents was documented in Hasakah in November. Detentions lasted between one and 48 hours, with no evidence of torture or ill-treatment. Nevertheless, the arrests served as intimidation, which infringes upon the rights to the freedom of expression and of assembly. 115. The intentional targeting of specific communities is most visible when directed against minorities. The Government’s attacks on communities perceived to support armed groups – owing to their geographic location and/or religious background – and its reliance 16