A/HRC/28/69 75. ISIS inflicts severe physical or mental pain or suffering on civilian populations in areas under its control, in particular through its public lashing and amputations, as part of a widespread and systematic attack on the civilian population. There has been a rise in torture and the cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of the civilian population in Ar Raqqah, Dayr az Zawr and Aleppo governorates. Torture has also been committed systematically against captured FSA and YPG fighters. ISIS fighters beat and killed those held in its detention centres in Ar Raqqah and Aleppo governorates during interrogations. Beatings included whipping detainees with cables. Former detainees in ISIS detention facilities in Ar Raqqah governorate reported being held in overcrowded, insect-infested cells. Detainees received inadequate food and were not permitted to communicate with anyone outside the facility. 6. Sick and wounded persons 76. The deliberate deprivation of care for those viewed as adversaries has aggravated the scale of human suffering in the Syrian Arab Republic. Since the first days of unrest, protesters wounded in demonstrations have been prevented their access to hospitals. As the conflict escalated, many civilians injured in indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks died, unable to reach medical care. Security forces have arrested and detained wounded persons seeking treatment, claiming that bullet or shrapnel wounds were evidence of participation in opposition activities. Doctors and nurses have been forced to withhold treatment under violent threat. The sick and wounded have been targeted with sniper fire and during military assaults on medical facilities. Health care has become militarized to the extent that many in need elect not to seek medical assistance in hospitals for fear of arrest, detention, torture or death. 77. The demise of impartiality has been one of the defining characteristics of this conflict. Across the Syrian Arab Republic, government forces have refused to allow deliveries of essential medicines and surgical supplies. As an immediate consequence, field hospitals lack basic necessities and can offer only rudimentary medical treatment. In continuing a policy of denying medical care on the grounds that it may be used to treat injured combatants, government authorities act in direct breach of binding international humanitarian law obligations to ensure that wounded and sick persons are collected and cared for, and to ensure the rapid and unimpeded passage of humanitarian relief. 7. Persons with disabilities 78. There is a rising number of persons with disabilities due to the use of explosives, particularly in densely populated urban areas. The increased use of landmines and improvised explosive devices by all parties to the conflict has led to the injury and maiming of a large number of victims. The weapons used by government forces, in particular barrel bombs, cause severe injuries, including the loss of limbs and deep cuts from shrapnel. Many of the victims who survive barrel bombings are maimed. 79. Many of the witnesses interviewed suffered from injury, impairment or chronic disease. For the vast majority, their disabilities had resulted directly from the conflict. Persons with disabilities face specific hardships. They have suffered from a drastic curtailment in access to adequate services as a result of the conflict. Instances of persons with mental and physical disabilities unable to flee or being killed in hostilities in Ayn alArab (Kobane) in September 2014 have been documented. 8. Medical personnel and humanitarian aid workers 80. The collapse of the Syrian public health system over the past four years has been accelerated by the loss of medical personnel. Ambulance drivers, nurses, doctors and medical volunteers have been attacked, arrested, unlawfully detained and disappeared. 12