Two new Syrian rebel videos show execution of 11 prisoners, leader Abu Sakkar butchers prisoners, eat his heart
As a new video is published Thursday showing fighters of the Al Qaeda-linked Al-Nusra Front in Syria executing 11 men they say are Bashar Assad’s soldiers, a video from the weekend showing one of their leaders butchering a prisoner, eating his heart, has gone viral on the Internet.
U.S.-based Human Rights Watch identified the rebel as Abu Sakkar, a well-known rebel leader from the city of Homs, who looms over a dead soldier, cutting out his heart and exclaiming: “I swear to God we will eat your hearts and your livers, you soldiers of Bashar the dog.”
Abu Sakkar as the leader of the Independent Omar al-Farouq Brigade.
“The desecration and mutilation of a killed person is definitely a war crime,” Peter Bouckaert, emergencies director of Human Rights Watch, told the BBC. “This one is particularly disturbing because of the sectarian nature of the language used by Abu Sakkar.”
“Abu Sakkar is a very significant commander — he’s in charge of one of the most important battles happening in Syria right now,” said Bouckaert. “The danger is that extremists on both sides will feel the need to respond in kind.”
The new video, which was posted on YouTube on Thursday, is believed to have been filmed in the eastern Deir-al Zor province and appears to date from some time in 2012, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a monitoring group with a network of activists in Syria.
The footage shows the commander, his face obscured in a black balaclava, shooting each prisoner in the back of the head as they kneel blindfolded lined up in the sand.
The Islamic militants shout “God is great” each time a man is shot.
The Al Nusra Front, which is thought to be behind the footage, has links to Al-Qaeda, and itself has ended up on America’s terrorism list in December 2012.
Rami Abderrahman, the head of the Observatory, told Reuters that the Al Nusra Front has been releasing several videos of their gruesome operations.
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