Two videos of execution conducted by the so-called ‘Free Syrian Army’ were released online, at a time when the world still in shock following last week’s images of cannibalism.
Two videos of execution conducted by the so-called ‘Free Syrian Army’ were released online, at a time when the world still in shock following last week’s images of cannibalism.
The first video showed 11 men kneeling in front of a camera "who are close to Assad’s regime, but we do not know whether they are soldiers or not," said the UK-based opposing Syrian Observatory of Human Rights, the accredited source by most Western press agencies to post information on Syrian events, under the pretext that it has a network of informants in several Syrian regions.
According to a video posted on YouTube, one of the militiamen read a statement saying that "the victims were renegade soldiers," and that they were convicted by the court of al-Nusra Front in the eastern region of Deir Ezzor.
However, Agence France Presse reported that jihadist websites have also posted this video, claiming it was shot in 2012. This raises the question of why it is only now that those images are posted on the Web.
Before executing them one by one with a bullet in the head, as shown by YouTube footage, the gunman said that they were sentenced "for the massacres committed against our women and men in Syria."
Curiously, the same rhetoric was used by the perpetrators of the second execution, which took place recently in the city of Raqqa, northwest of Syria, occupied since last March by the militia of Al-Qaeda and proclaimed principality of "Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant."
In fact, the militia spokesman in charge of reading the verdict, stated that three Alawites were sentenced to death "to avenge the free women of Banias and Homs."
With a belligerent tone, he accused the Syrian president Bashar al-Assad of persecuting Sunnis indiscriminately, "with the help of his Nassirian chabbihas (pro-regime fighters) and Sunni renegades and those who support them," recalling the recent events in Banias and Homs.
In both executions, executioners wore the same Afghan cassock, as if they were the same gunmen filmed in the two videos.
According to Syria Truth website, the executioner of 13 soldiers was a Saudi Al-Qaeda militiaman named Kassawra al-Jazraoui.
Syrians Put under Pressure of Terror
Fielding a question about the increase in filmed killings by FSA and Al-Qaeda, an observer of the Syrian events told Al-Manar website that "whenever militia groups become stuck in trouble in their struggles against the government military, they have recourse to either car bombs or bloody executions."
According to the observer, asked not to be named, it is useful for them to keep the pressure on the Syrian people.
"Since the beginning of the Syrian crisis, the insurgency was based on the factor of the terror inflicted against the Syrian people, and against the army as well in order to overthrow the government, because there is no revolution in reality,” he went on to say.
The observer also believed that the claims by al-Nusra Front, namely that of "avenging our women", are just excuses to justify all this unprecedented violence.
"A pretext aimed to be picturesque because women are harmless and are easy victims," he added.
"Regarding the cannibal that ate the heart of a killed Syrian soldier, opposition sources revealed that the soldier had killed his brother, while others said he killed his father and brother as well. In both cases, they give one reason related to family issue, which justifies the revenge and the crime," he concluded.
A video posted online on Sunday of a foreign-backed FSA militant cutting the heart out of a Syrian soldier and biting it.
Syria was hit by a violent unrest since mid-March 2011, where the Syrian government accuses foreign actors of orchestrating the conflict, by supporting the militant opposition groups with arms and money.
