syria-un-20130205 89

A/HRC/22/59 GE.13-10627 89 8. Several defectors interviewed provide insight into the conduct of the armed forces’ military operations. According to one, a commander in an Aleppo-based airfield ordered the shelling of civilian neighbourhoods with artillery and from helicopters. He indicated that the current commander [name withheld] ordered civilian neighbourhoods to be fired upon at close range. Their first target was Al-Hanafiyeh neighbourhood, near the base, which was shelled to prevent anti-Government armed groups from using it to attack the airport. If confirmed, these individuals would be individually criminally responsible for the war crime of attacking civilians. 9. Ten of those interviewed provided evidence of systematic attacks on bread lines and bakeries in Aleppo. A bakery near Al-Hilwaniya was hit by artillery fire in early August, killing 11 people who had been queuing for bread, many of them children. On 16 August at 05:00, Al-Zarrah bakery in Qadi Askar was shelled with mortar fire from the nearby Al- Ramousa military compound. The mortars hit queues of people lining up for bread, killing 25 and injuring over 50 persons. In Mare’a, northern Aleppo, a line of people queuing for bread was hit on 22 August by a “barrel bomb” dropped 25 metres away from the bakery. Between August and December, Qadi Askar, Iderbi, Al-Sakhour, Aguoir, Masakin Hananou and Al-Moysar bakeries were all bombarded during the morning hours, when people were lining up for bread. One interviewee witnessed the aerial bombardment of a bakery in Aleppo in August, describing in detail the scene of the attack which resulted in the deaths of 20 people. On 23 October, a bakery in Masakin Hananou was shelled at sunset, killing 4 persons, one of whom was a young girl who was decapitated as a result of the mortar attack. An interviewee who worked as a volunteer in Dar Al-Shifa hospital in Aleppo said that the hospital received victims of the bread line bombings, many of whom were women and children who suffered from severe injuries. 10. Several interviews indicated the presence of anti-Government armed group members during bread distribution. One interviewee stated that the owner of one of the bakeries had requested the FSA to be present to organize and maintain the order of persons queuing for bread. Other sources suggested that anti-Government group members were gathering bread either to distribute to the population or for their own consumption. 11. The bombardment of bread lines and bakeries amounts to violence aimed at spreading terror among the civilian population in violation of customary international humanitarian law. The bakeries have consistently been attacked when most crowded. The timing of the attacks has often been in the morning when the concentration of civilians was highest or right before iftar, the breaking of the fast during Ramadan. In most cases, such as the Halfaya bakery attack discussed below, the attacks were conducted the day after flour was delivered to the bakery, following a protracted shortage. As a result of the shelling and aerial bombardment of bakeries, dozens have closed in Aleppo, contributing to the shortages of food and deterioration of the humanitarian situation. 12. The maintenance of order by members of armed groups in the vicinity of the breadlines does not legitimise the targeting of breadlines as such. The presence of large numbers of civilians (interviewees consistently describe queues of hundreds of people) renders any attack on a breadline disproportionate and clearly in excess of the concrete and direct military advantage anticipated from killing a small number of anti-Government members engaged in non-combatant activities. Syrian armed forces have attacked civilians engaged in a typical civilian activity, in areas where civilians in high concentrations were expected to be found. 13. Interviews with members of the Syrian Air Force, now defected, indicate that the aerial bombardment of Al-Sakhour and Masakin Hananou, where bakery queues were bombed in August, was carried out from the Rasm Al-Aboud military base under the 24th Division of the Air Force. Orders for the bombardment of these localities were given directly by the commander of the base, [name withheld] and his deputy [name withheld]