syria-un-20120816 79

A/HRC/21/50 79 Annex VI [English only] Indiscriminate attacksa I. Homs Governorate Bab Amr neighbourhood, February–May 2012 1. The majority of deaths in Bab Amr during the military operation that began in February 2012 was caused by extensive and indiscriminate shelling by Government forces on primarily civilian infrastructure and residential areas. Targets affected by the shelling included schools, state hospitals, field hospitals, shops, mosques, houses and apartment buildings, and storage facilities. While the FSA was active in the neighbourhood, either through military activity or relief efforts, shelling was the primary cause of death and injury among children, women and elderly. 2. Most of the shelling was indiscriminate, even though in some of the cases it seemed to target specific locations. On 22 February 2012, at least two shells struck on the Bab Amr Media office, killing many of its occupants, including two foreign journalists. In another incident in early February a number of shells fell on the only operational field hospital in Bab Amr, causing the death of many of the patients and medical staff. An intense period of shelling caused significant destruction to the neighbourhood infrastructure and forced the residents to flee. Al Qusayr, February–July 2012 3. The city of Al-Qusayr is located a few kilometres southwest of Homs city in a mountainous region along the Syrian-Lebanese border, in the Western part of the country. Its strategic relevance derives from its location, as well as the demographic makeup of its citizenry which consists of a majority of Sunni Muslims, 10 percent Christians and a few hundred Alawites. 4. Large numbers of its residents have joined the anti-Government protests which have spread across the country since February 2011. Al-Qusayr has been theatre to some of the heaviest clashes between the Government forces on the one hand, and the FSA and other anti-Government armed groups on the other. The city was initially placed under blockade by the Syrian army in November 2011. The period since has been continuously marred by varied measures of violence which persist at the time of writing. 5. Since February 2012, Al-Qusayr experienced heavy armed confrontations between Government forces and anti-Government armed groups for the control of the city – particularly for the control of the Municipality building, which was used by Government forces as a base to launch attacks in the city, the market area and the main hospital. 6. The commission interviewed 10 persons who provided accounts of alleged crimes committed in Al-Qusayr. Information gathered by first-hand witnesses indicate that the city came under heavy shelling during the period mid-February to mid-July 2012, with peaks in late March–early April 2012 and the first two weeks of June 2012. a See annex II, paras. 30–42