A/HRC/30/48 71. Indiscriminate mortar and rocket fire by anti-Government armed groups has killed and maimed children in Aleppo and Damascus cities, as well as in Latakia and Idlib governorates. Some schools, such as Abdulrahman Al-Khazen school in Al-Fahamy (Damascus), moved classes into basements after Jaish Al-Islam launched mortar shells on the capital in February. 72. Boys considered to be of fighting age continue to be held at Government checkpoints. Once held, children are imprisoned with adults and tortured in Government detention centres. They suffer the same inhumane conditions of detention as described in Section F. The presence of male and female detainees as young as 11 was recorded in Security Branches 227, 235, 248 and 215 in Damascus. Children have been tortured and the rape of minors was reported in Branches 235 and 215. 73. As detailed in Section H, ISIS has sexually enslaved thousands of female Yazidis, a large proportion of whom are under the age of 18. Additionally, the group has forced Sunni Arab girls into marriages with its fighters. 74. ISIS kidnapped children, along with their mothers, during attacks on multiple Assyrian villages in February, and from Mabouja, in late March. Children and women were taken hostage by Jabhat Al-Nusra following the attack on Ishtabraq in late April. Children reportedly have been detained by Jabhat Al-Nusra and tortured in Harim prison (Idlib). 75. ISIS continues to recruit and train boys as young as six in the use of weapons. Yazidi boys, abducted from Sinjar in northern Iraq in August 2014, were brought into the Syrian Arab Republic and separated from their mothers. They are trained alongside underage Syrian boys. Reports of youth training camps known as “cub camps” continue to emerge from Dayr Az-Zawr and Hasakah. 76. Jabhat Al-Nusra also reportedly engages children in military activities. In March and April, minors were seen manning checkpoints and carrying weapons in Idlib. 77. Children are one of the groups most affected by sieges. Of those who have died of malnutrition or dehydration, the majority are young children. 78. Lack of access to medical care, whether as a result of deliberate obstruction or the vagaries of war, has profoundly affected children. There is little care available to more vulnerable newborns and vaccination programmes continue to be affected negatively by the conflict. Injured children, like adults, suffer due to a lack of medical supplies. One interviewee witnessed a doctor operating on a 7-year-old child without anaesthesia in Jisr Al-Shughour in April. He described the child as being in such pain that “he was beyond crying”. 79. Children are being denied access to education. As bombardments of schools increase, so too do reports of the use of schools as military facilities. The Government’s placing of weaponry on schools in Jaramana is currently under investigation. In Fajroh village (Hama), ISIS established its headquarters in a school. Additionally, schools in Aleppo and Dara’a have ceased to function as they became shelters for IDPs. 80. As a result of repeated exposure to violence and insecurity, children throughout the Syrian Arab Republic are exhibiting symptoms of trauma, including psychological and behavioural disorders, as well as post-traumatic stress. The protracted duration of the conflict is weakening these children’s resilience. 11