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A/HRC/37/72/CRP.1 7 and girls but in two instances, the Commission also documented the rape of men. An interviewee described how, following the move of Government forces into the Bab Amr neighbourhood of Homs city in February 2012, pro-Government militiamen stormed his house, killed five of his male relatives, and forced him to watch the gang-rape of his wife and two daughters, both minors. Afterwards, the interviewee was raped in front of his family. In early 2013, another male interviewee reported being violently raped by Government forces when he tried to leave Yarmouk camp. 17. Sexual violence and killings regularly took place in parallel. Women and girls who were raped often witnessed the killing of male relatives, and in several instances eyewitnesses recalled women and girls being killed after being raped. Women and girls who tried to resist sexual assault and those who tried to prevent it were severely beaten or killed. One woman recalled how, in March 2012, she was dragged out of her home in al-Haffe (Latakia) by pro-Government militia members and raped in the street. Her brother-in-law was killed when he tried to intervene. In another instance, a survivor of the al-Houla (Homs) massacre in May 2012 (see A/HRC/20/CRP.1.) described how Government forces entered her home and raped her daughter in front of her and her husband before shooting the daughter and the father. The mother was then raped by two soldiers.2 18. In many instances, women and girls were arrested during house raids and taken to Government detention facilities as a way to pressure their male relatives into surrendering. Residents of Homs city stated that Government forces raided houses looking for men and, when they could not locate them, arrested their mothers, wives, and/or daughters. This was confirmed by army defectors, including a soldier who participated in a ground operation in Heit (as-Suweida) in January 2012. He was present when army soldiers broke into a house looking for an opposition supporter and when they found he had fled, raped his wife and three daughters, burned the house, and detained the four women. Such tactics were allowed to go unchecked by officers who, on occasion, were themselves the perpetrators of rapes. Defectors who participated in ground operations in Aleppo, Dara’a, and Homs confirmed that women and girls were often arrested when their male relatives were not found. In detention, many of these women and girls were subjected to sexual violence, including rape (see paras. 27-41). 19. While most of the sexual violence perpetrated against women and girls during ground operations and home raids was committed through rapes, sometimes women were subjected to other forms of sexual and gender-based violence that amounted to torture or inhuman and degrading treatment. In March 2012, women were forced at gunpoint to walk naked in front of tanks in the streets of the Karm al-Zeytoun (Homs). A 16 year-old girl from Karm al-Zeytoun recalled how she watched the rape of two women and afterwards was forced to walk in front of the tanks for several hours. Another interviewee reported seeing around 50 clothed women and girls walking in front of tanks in Kafr Aya (Homs) in January 2013. 20. In February 2015, Government forces, backed by the National Defence Forces militia and foreign Shi’a militias, launched a major ground offensive in Bashkoy, Rityan, and Herdetnin (Aleppo). Amidst reports of the capture and rape of women from these locations, one opposition fighter recalled receiving a phone call during which he was made to listen to the rape of his wife. 21. Allegations of rape being used in more recent ground operations including during the recapture of eastern Aleppo city in December 2016 have not been confirmed. The Commission is extremely concerned, however, that the widespread use of less organised Shi’a militias, both Syrian and foreign, is a contributing risk factor which increases the likelihood of such events occurring. 2 Evidence of the use of rape as a tactic in the al-Houla massacre in May 2012 did not emerge until after the publication of the Commission’s report of its special inquiry into the events of al-Houla (A/HRC/20/CRP.1). Such delayed reporting is not unusual, as it takes time for survivors of sexual violence to be located, or for them to speak about their experiences if indeed they are ever able to