A/HRC/37/72 from Government forces positions. It is therefore concluded that there are reasonable grounds to believe that Government forces used chemical weapons in Harasta on 18 November. 16. The use of chemical weapons is prohibited under customary international humanitarian law regardless of the presence of a valid military target, including when used against enemy fighters, as the effects of such weapons are designed to cause superfluous injury and unnecessary suffering. B. Cluster munitions 17. Pro-Government forces further used cluster munitions in densely populated civilian areas on at least three occasions in eastern Ghutah during the period under review, continuing a pattern previously documented in Douma (Rif Damascus), 3 Aleppo,4 Dayr alZawr,5 and Idlib.6 All three documented incidents took place over the span of four days. Given their typically wide dispersal pattern and high dud rate, which continues to endanger civilians years after a cessation of hostilities, cluster munitions are inherently indiscriminate weapons when used in densely populated civilian areas. In such cases, including the two incidents described below, their use constitutes the war crime of launching indiscriminate attacks in a civilian populated area. 18. At around 7 a.m. on 15 November, residents in Saqba awoke to the sound of explosions, which injured seven persons, including one girl. Approximately half an hour later, another explosion was heard. Eyewitnesses recalled that a few seconds later, a number of smaller bombs exploded. In total, ten persons were injured including two women and four children under the age of 15. Subsequently, on 18 November, at around 3.30 p.m., three weapons struck a residential area in Hammourieh. When rescuers were arriving to the hospital with those injured by the first weapon, a second weapon released numerous bomblets hitting the vicinity of the hospital, which was located in a residential area. One man was killed and at least 25 persons were injured in the second incident, including three children, one of whom received surgery. Images of weapons remnants taken at the scenes of the 15 and 18 November incidents show multiple 3-O-8 rocket assisted mortar cargo canisters and their O-10 submunitions. These are cluster bombs fired from either the M-240 towed mortar or 2S4 Tyulpan self-propelled mortar gun, both of which are systems that Syrian and Russian forces are known to possess. 19. Throughout the afternoon of the following day, on 19 November, Douma was struck by a series of weapons resulting in the killing of six persons, including one child. The weapons impacted residential areas and al-Quwatly street, one of the city’s main shopping streets. Of the 143 injured in Douma throughout that day, 25 were women and 26 were children. The victims sustained varying degrees of injuries with 50 requiring hospitalisation. Photos provided by interviewees display typical fragmentation pattern from cluster submunitions on concrete and a parachute for a O-10 cluster submunitions deployed from rocket-assisted 240 mm cluster bombs. III. Attacks against protected objects A. Schools 20. Over the span of three weeks, between mid-October and early November, an alarming number of schools and kindergartens were impacted by bombardments in eastern Ghutah. Incidents that occurred in October were caused by ground shelling; in November, schools were hit with air dropped munitions. Fearing further attacks, the majority of schools 3 4 5 6 A/HRC/34/CRP.3, paras. 57 and 59. A/HRC/34/CRP.3, para. 54; A/HRC/34/64, paras. 33–35. A/HRC/34/CRP.3, para. 58. A/HRC/34/CRP.3, para. 56; A/HRC/36/55, para. 65 and annex II, para. 18. 23