Syrians who support the regime are NOT civilians--according to the UN report

"Making their fourth submission to the Human Rights Council, the panel of four investigators said that government forces and supporting militias had attacked Sunni civilians and that opposition forces had attacked Alawite and other pro-government communities. It said that Kurdish groups had clashed with government and antigovernment forces, that Turkmen militias were fighting with antigovernment forces, and that Palestinians, increasingly split in their views of the Assad government, were being armed by both pro- and antigovernment forces."  Notice the difference: Sunnis are civilians while Alawites are "communities".