A/HRC/28/69 February 2014, when the armed group reportedly killed an elderly man. In both incidents, those interviewed stated they believed the armed group responsible was based in Rastan in northern Homs. 19. In the early hours of 1 September 2014, double car bombs exploded in Housh Beit Zidan, a village in the Taldara countryside (Hama). The first car bomb exploded as the car made its way along a secondary road on the eastern side of the village. It killed two people and injured nine others. Among the injured were four children who lost limbs. Approximately 20 minutes later, a second car bomb exploded, this time on a secondary road on the western side of the village. It killed six members of one family. No group claimed responsibility for this attack. 20. On 1 October 2014, two bombs exploded near two schools, the El-Makhzoumi and Mohdatha schools in the Akrama neighbourhood of Homs city. The first explosion occurred shortly after children were leaving school, reportedly killing at least 30 boys and girls. Ten minutes later, another bomb was detonated. Reports indicate that the second bombing was the result of a suicide bomber exploding himself near the entrance of the Makhzoumi school, ushering those fleeing the first blast into the school. There were no military targets in the area. While it has not been possible to confirm the number killed, the casualties included children, some of whom were torn apart in the blasts. No group claimed responsibility for this attack. Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham (ISIS) 21. ISIS has carried out massacres of civilians and captured soldiers in Ar Raqqah, Homs, and Dayr az Zawr. While eyewitness accounts were collected, in several incidents, the killings were carried out in isolated locations and the bodies of the victims were neither displayed by the group nor able to be retrieved by the families. The group has published photographs and videos of the killings and acknowledged their responsibility for them publicly. 22. By mid-2014, ISIS had besieged the 17th Division’s base in Raqqah city and the Tabqa airbase, two of the last Syrian army positions in Ar Raqqah governorate. When the 17th Division base fell on 25 July 2014, the armed group killed the soldiers captured inside and later beheaded many of their corpses. Residents of Raqqah city and Slouk described that, in the days that followed the attack, ISIS displayed the bodies and heads in the town squares. Videos, some recorded by the group, showed children looking at the mutilated corpses. 23. By 23 August 2014, the group had launched its final assault on Tabqa airbase. As it became apparent that the base would fall to ISIS, some soldiers fled across the desert. While a few made it to the safety of army positions many miles away, others were captured and killed in small groups in nearby towns, such as Slouk and Tabqa. 24. Over two hundred men, most captured still inside the Tabqa airbase, were stripped to their underwear and forced to walk into the desert. A video of this forced march was recorded and later distributed by ISIS. A later video showed hundreds of bodies lying dead in the sand, bearing gunshot wounds to the head. 25. On 16 November 2014, ISIS released another video in which they cut the throats of 18 captured soldiers. A family member of one of the men executed in this video stated that he recognised his relative who had been a serving soldier at the Tabqa airbase at the time of the August attack. It appears, however, that others had been captured from other locations, including during ISIS’s overrunning of the 17th Division in Ar Raqqah in late July 2014. 26. In mid-July 2014, ISIS fighters seized the Sha’ar gas field in eastern Homs, killing an alleged 350 people in close quarters after capturing the area. Among those killed were technicians and other staff working at the gas fields and their family members, including 29