A/HRC/36/55 April sarin attack in Khan Shaykhun (see paras. 72-77 below and annex II), five schools were forced to shut down in the town, namely, Ahmel Talhan, Farouk al-Kang, Salh alDawadi, Adnan al-Malkwa and Tusuremm schools. Attacks against schools seriously violate the right to education and gravely undermine the future potential for Syrian children to participate fully in their communities. 51. The Commission continues to receive numerous allegations of children being recruited, placed in training camps and, in some cases, sent to active front lines. In March, for example, one 14-year-old boy joined the Syrian Democratic Forces in Tal Abyad, ArRaqqah, without the consent of his parents. He had approached a Syrian Democratic Forces recruitment centre in Tal Abyad voluntarily, was accepted by authorities of the Forces, and was killed in combat in early June in Ar-Raqqah countryside. Representatives of the Syrian Democratic Forces communicated the news of the boy’s death to his family, but did not allow the family to bury him, instead burying him in a cemetery for “martyrs”. Numerous accounts of ISIL militants recruiting, training and using children in Ar-Raqqah also continue to be received. V. Attacks against protected objects A. Places of worship 52. Beyond intentional attacks against religious minorities, incidental attacks against religious cultural property were carried out during the reporting period, undermining the ability of civilian communities to peacefully express their faiths. In one emblematic example, minutes before 7 p.m. on 16 March, a series of air strikes hit a building in a religious complex in Al-Jinah, killing 38 persons, including 1 woman and 5 boys. Three of the boys were aged between 6 and 13 years, 2 others were 17 years old. An additional 26 persons were injured, many of whom suffered from crushed limbs, head trauma and suffocation caused by structural collapse. First responders began a rescue operation immediately after the air strikes, and continued to retrieve bodies from under the rubble until the following morning. 53. Al-Jinah, a village in western Aleppo countryside that closely borders Idlib Governorate, is controlled by Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, Ahrar al-Sham and a number of local Free Syrian Army groups, among others. On 16 March, the United States Central Command issued a statement announcing that “US forces conducted an air strike on alQaeda (…) killing several terrorists” at a meeting location in Idlib. 10 It subsequently clarified that the statement referred to the Al-Jinah air strike. Over the following days, media outlets and non-governmental organizations reported that all casualties were civilians attending a religious lesson at the Omar Bin al-Khatab mosque, although the Pentagon denied hitting a mosque or killing civilians. The mosque is located approximately 1.5 kilometres from the centre of Al-Jinah, between Al-Jinah and Ibeen. The air strikes were carried out by United States forces in their capacity as a member of the international coalition. 54. On 7 June, the United States Central Command presented a summary of its postinvestigation findings on the incident, including interviews with “dozens of persons”, but none were in Al-Jinah at the time of the attack. 11 It found that the strike killed one civilian, possibly a child, but noted it was proportional to a valid military objective, as it claimed to have struck a building, which was adjacent to a prayer hall, where an Al-Qaida meeting was taking place at which “regional leaders” were present. 10 11 See www.centcom.mil/MEDIA/PRESS-RELEASES/Press-Release-View/Article/1121747/us-forcesstrike-al-qaeda-in-syria/. On 7 June, the United States Central Command tweeted a summary of its findings and conducted a closed-door briefing for journalists, which was widely reported on. Subsequently, a non-governmental organization posted an unofficial transcript of the briefing online that matched details reported in media. 11