A/HRC/27/60 (b) Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham 128. On 28 February, in the course of `their withdrawal from Azaz, ISIS fighters dismantled equipment and detonated explosives inside the Al-Faisal Flour Mill in northern Aleppo. Its destruction had a significant impact on the availability of flour. The deliberate destruction of food-producing infrastructure is unlawful under customary international humanitarian law. 129. In Aleppo and Ar Raqqah governorates, residents reported restrictions on basic rights and freedoms, including movement and assembly. The imposition of a strict interpretation of sharia law previously unseen in the Syrian Arab Republic, setting out regulations on all aspects of life from food to movement, employment and religious observance, has restricted basic freedoms, particularly for women. (c) Kurdish armed groups 130. Accounts from March describe how YPG distributed humanitarian aid in Qamishli (Al-Hasakah) exclusively to their supporters. E. Arbitrary and forcible displacement 1. Government forces 131. The Government’s aerial bombardments and shelling of civilian-inhabited areas have caused extensive arbitrary displacement. In fear for their lives, people, mainly women and children, have fled to ever-dwindling secure areas inside the Syrian Arab Republic or have crossed its borders. Displacements occurred in Aleppo city and in Rif Damascus and Dara’a governorates. 132. By causing such large-scale displacement, the Government has failed in its obligations under international human rights law to protect civilians. It has also failed to comply with its duties under customary international humanitarian law to take all possible measures to provide displaced civilians with shelter, hygiene, health care, safety and nutrition and to ensure that family members are not separated. 2. Non-State armed groups Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham 133. On 18 March, ISIS fighters entered Tal Akhder village (Ar Raqqah). Fighters used the mosque’s minarets to deliver an ultimatum to Kurdish residents to leave the village within two days or be killed. On 20 March, several hundred ISIS fighters returned and repeated the threat. Civilians fled in fear, carrying few possessions with them. 134. Some Kurdish civilians forcibly displaced from Tal Akhder suffered an earlier forcible displacement by ISIS from Tal Abyad in July 2013. 135. The ISIS order that civilians leave Tal Akhder cannot be justified on the grounds either of the security of the civilians involved or of military necessity. Such conduct amounts to the war crime of forcible displacement. Forming part of the attack referred to in paragraph 38 above, that conduct also constitutes a crime against humanity. 21

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