A/HRC/36/55 southern Idlib, was hit by air strikes on 7 April, and one eyewitness recalled seeing an airplane drop a bomb that released numerous smaller units, several of which hit the clinic’s fuel generator and started a fire, forcing the clinic to relocate. Photos of remnants indicate that the clinic was hit with a ShOAB-0.5 cluster bomb and cluster incendiary bombs. On 22 April, at approximately 2 p.m., an air strike hit a cave hospital in Abdeen, southern Idlib, killing seven people, including a 6-month-old girl awaiting surgery. Her parents, a nurse and three patients were also killed. On 28 April, at around 4 p.m., an air strike hit a surgical and maternity hospital in Kafr Zeita, causing damage to the facility. The hospital was aerially attacked again at 2 a.m. on 29 April, directly affecting the emergency room and forcing the evacuation of all patients to the only remaining hospital in Kafr Zeita, located in a cave. Later that day, at around 2 p.m., a third air strike completely destroyed the facility, where, until then, over 100 babies had been delivered each month. Satellite imagery shows air strike damage to the hospital facility, likely from a 250-kilogram blast weapon, and indications of several near misses. 66. The number and frequency of attacks against health-care facilities, particularly repeated bombardments of the same facilities and routine lack of warnings, clearly indicate that pro-Government forces continue to intentionally target such facilities as part of a warring strategy, amounting to the war crime of deliberately attacking protected objects.14 Deliberate attacks against health-care workers further constitute the war crime of intentionally attacking medical personnel. The 25 March attack on Al-Latamneh hospital with chlorine further violates the Chemical Weapons Convention. The Commission reiterates that 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 indiscriminate by nature and designed to cause superfluous injury and unnecessary suffering. VI. Use of chemical weapons 67. Between March 2013 and March 2017, the Commission documented 25 incidents of chemical weapons use in the Syrian Arab Republic, of which 20 were perpetrated by government forces and used primarily against civilians. 15 During the reporting period, government forces further used chemical weapons against civilians in the town of Khan Shaykhun, in Al-Latamneh, located approximately 11 kilometres south of Khan Shaykhun, and in eastern Ghouta. 68. While Khan Shaykhun and Al-Latamneh are controlled by Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, Ahrar-al-Sham and various Free Syrian Army groups, eastern Ghouta is primarily controlled by Jaish al-Islam and Faylaq al-Rahman. At the time of the use of chemical weapons in Khan Shaykhun and Al-Latamneh, Syrian and Russian forces were conducting an aerial campaign against Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham and armed groups in northern Hamah and southern Idlib. 69. At around 6.30 a.m. on 30 March — five days after the chlorine attack on AlLatamneh hospital by Syrian forces (see para. 64 above) — an unidentified warplane dropped two bombs in an agricultural field south of Al-Latamneh village. Interviewees recalled how the first bomb made almost no sound but released a “toxic material” absent any particular smell, while the second bomb caused a loud explosion. As a result of the former, at least 85 people suffered from respiratory difficulties, loss of consciousness, red 14 15 14 See A/HRC/27/60, paras. 109-111; A/HRC/33/55, paras. 42-65; and A/HRC/34/64, paras. 30-40. See also Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic, “Human rights abuses and international humanitarian law violations in the Syrian Arab Republic, 21 July 2016-28 February 2017”, paras. 15-19. Available at www.ohchr.org/Documents/Countries/ SY/A_HRC_34_CRP.3_E.docx. See A/HRC/23/58, paras. 136-140; A/HRC/27/60, paras. 115-118; A/HRC/28/69, paras. 15 and 434443; A/HRC/30/48 and Corr.1, para. 39; A/HRC/33/55, para. 30; and A/HRC/34/64, paras. 17, 3435, 39 and 52-56. See also Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic, “Human rights abuses and international humanitarian law violations in the Syrian Arab Republic, 21 July 2016-28 February 2017”, paras. 49-51.