Human rights activists have condemned the public shooting in Syria of four apparent Assad loyalists by rebels in the battleground city of Aleppo.
[...]
In a video which appeared on YouTube, gunmen can be seen leading a number of men in their underwear, some of them bruised or bloodied, into the yard, which is crowded with men shouting religious slogans.
Chants include, “The Free Syrian Army forever, we’ll trample on the head of Assad”.
After the half-naked men are put up against a wall, the camera moves back behind the crowd, losing sight of them.
Heavy gunfire from Kalashnikov assault rifles erupts, after which the camera shows a pile of bodies by the wall.
One of the men killed has been identified as Ali Zeineddin al-Berri, known as Zeno, accused of leading a shabiha group which killed 15 FSA fighters during a truce in Aleppo on Tuesday.
Clive Baldwin, a senior legal adviser for Human Rights Watch (HRW), told the BBC: “What it looks like is execution of detainees and if that is the case, that would be a war crime.”
HRW, he added, had been seeing evidence of abuses such as torture and executions by rebel elements “for some time”.
Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said of the footage: “This is criminal. This is revenge.”
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov said the killings confirmed that human rights violations were “taking place on both sides”.
“It would be useful if Western and Arab politicians looked at the situation in Syria from this angle too,” he added. “Everybody must stop violence.”
Video after the jump (NSFW):
“Everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you and you can change it, you can influence it, you can build your own things that other people can use.” ~ Steve Jobs