A/HRC/28/69 2. Non-State armed groups Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham (ISIS) 274. ISIS has systematically targeted sources of potential dissent, including through the forcible displacement of civilians living in its areas of control. 275. As ISIS solidified its control of large swathes of Dayr az Zawr governorate in the summer of 2014, it forced those perceived to be not in support of the armed group - or those who were connected, even tenuously, to persons supporting the Government or other armed groups - from their homes. 276. In mid-August 2014, shortly after seizing Mohassan, ISIS forced out a large family who had rented a house from an Alawite man perceived to be connected to the Syrian Government. In confiscating the property and driving the family out, ISIS fighters stated that the landlord was “kuffar” and “working for the regime”. Reportedly several others families were forcibly displaced by ISIS on the grounds that the owners were “infidels”. In early October 2014, ISIS expelled a family from its home in Al-Qouriyah days after the wife had given birth. The group displaced the family ostensibly because the husband was seen as being “moderate”. 277. In the displacements documented in Mo Hassan and Al-Qouriyah (Dayr az Zawr) and Slouk (Ar Raqqah), ISIS fighters confiscated the houses and provided them to its fighters and their families for their own use. 278. In July 2014, ISIS ordered Kurdish families from their homes in Slouk. The group then confiscated the property and gifted it to its foreign fighters and their relatives. One civilian was evicted from his apartment, which was then turned over to a Pakistani ISIS fighter. Other residents of Slouk suspected to be supportive of the Syrian Government, or who use to be officers in the civilian management were also reportedly forced from their homes by ISIS. 279. On 15 September 2014, ISIS launched a multi-front attack on the Ayn al-Arab (Kobane) region, a majority Kurdish enclave in northern Aleppo. Between 15 September and 5 October 2014, ISIS advanced quickly through the countryside, amidst heavy clashes with the YPG. By the first week of October, the group entered the city, seizing some of its outer neighbourhoods. During the ISIS advance, more than 200,000 Kurdish civilians fled, or were evacuated by YPG. While close to 400 villages were emptied, some civilians who were too old, too infirm or wished to protect their property, remained behind. 280. Some were executed while others were immediately ordered to the leave their homes. ISIS also took some civilians by force to Tel Abyad (Ar Raqqah) where they were detained and beaten. On release, they were forced to leave the area. “You have to forget Kobane and your villages”, one ISIS fighter told an interviewee. A senior ISIS commander, when asked if one resident could return to his village to collect his livestock, responded “Why? Do you have your house here? Do you have your village here? ….You don’t belong here. By tomorrow not one of you will remain here or come back here.” 281. After ISIS took control, executing or forcibly displacing the few remaining residents, fighters systematically looted houses in rural Ayn al-Arab (Kobane), with goods and livestock transported to markets in Ar Raqqah governorate. ISIS fighters also killed livestock and set houses alight. 282. In early November 2014, ISIS expelled a family from its home in Al-Bab on the grounds that the father of the family was an activist working against ISIS. The man’s wife and six children were forced to leave, with one fighter saying “this home is no longer their property but the property of the Islamic State”. Other activists and their families were also 62