SYRIA: Videos show Syrian rebels killing people they suspect to be pro-government forces

Record ID: 281580

  • Title: SYRIA: Videos show Syrian rebels killing people they suspect to be pro-government forces
  • Date: 8th November 2012
  • Summary: REBELS WALKING UP STAIRS
  • Embargoed: 23rd November 2012 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Syrian Arab Republic
  • Country: Syria
  • Topics: Crime,Conflict
  • Reuters ID: LVAAFPG90A8F584VGSH9YOO3C6SL
  • Story Text: Graphic video evidence has emerged of Syrian rebels killing people they suspect of belonging to President Bashar al-Assad forces.
    The first video was filmed by a Reuters video crew in Harem, near Aleppo, on October 26 where rebels have surrounded hundreds of troops and militiamen loyal to the Assad regime.
    Taking one neighbourhood after days of bitter street fighting, opposition fighters are seen taking people prisoner in the back of a truck, and hunting down other government forces.
    The rebels are shown storming a house, suspected of housing government fighters and firing indiscriminately into rooms. A number of dead bodies are seen on the ground and on the roof.
    One man injured in the attack is shown lying on the ground, pleading for the rebels to kill him.
    The head of the Idlib Martyr's brigade, Basel Eissa, who is seen to be co-ordinating the attack, says rebels will help the man.

    "Right now, we will give him emergency aid. Then we will investigate his situation. If he was a shabbiha fighter, we will try him. If he was a fleeing soldier, we will return him safely to his family," he says.
    Eissa was himself killed in an airstrike earlier this week on Monday (November 5).
    In another attack, rebel fighters are seen shooting an unarmed man in the middle of a street. The man is middle aged, black bearded and dressed in casual clothes. Three rebel fighters shoot him repeatedly until he falls, and he is then shot once more in the head.
    For rebel commanders who present their siege of the former Crusader fortress town of Harem as a showcase for efforts to forge a disciplined fighting force out of motley volunteers, the killing was an embarrassment, offering evidence that Assad's "shabbiha" gunmen have no monopoly on atrocities.
    Another video posted to a social media website on November 1, appears to show soldiers being gathered by rebels and then shot dead in what is said to be a building in Saraqeb, 50 km (30 miles) southwest of Aleppo Some of the dead were shot after they had surrendered, according to the video footage. The video footage shows a group of petrified men, some bleeding, lying on the ground as rebels walked around, kicking and stamping on their captives.
    Then the men are shot dead.
    Reuters could not independently verify the footage.
    U.N. investigators accuse pro-government forces of war crimes, including the murder and torture of civilians, in what they said in August may be a state-directed policy. They said rebel fighters were also guilty of war crimes, including executing prisoners, but on a smaller scale.
    More than 32,000 people have been killed since protests against Assad, an Alawite who succeeded his late father Hafez in ruling the mostly Sunni Muslim country, first broke out on city streets. The revolt has since degenerated into full-scale civil war, with the government forces relying heavily on artillery and air strikes to thwart the rebels.
    END
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2012. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
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