The video of armed rebels executing pro-Assad forces.
Warning, images are graphic.
Video courtesy of Youtube
Reports coming out of Syria purport that 14 members of the pro government militia group, Shabiha, were executed by anti-Assad forces in the city of Aleppo. This comes days after President Bashar Al-Assad stated that the 'battle for Aleppo will determine our fate'.
The amateur video believed to have been shot within the past 36 hours shows anti-Assad forces capturing 14 men, interrogating them, having them state their names for the camera, brought outside, lined up against against a dingy white wall, and summarily executed.
While crimes and atrocities are being perpetrated by both sides daily in this civil conflict, the imagery that accompanies this act of brutality is startling. While the people of Syria have a right to their self determination as a people, they do not have the right to commit the type of war crimes they have accused President Bashar Al-Assad's regime and supporters of carrying out.
The rebels claim that this comes after an incident a week earlier between the Shabiha group and anti-Assad forces, where it is said about a dozen anti-Assad forces were captured and killed in the same manner. The act the rebels say was retribution for the deaths of those soldiers.
While it is a tragedy and a crime that should not go unpunished, as simple as it sounds, two wrongs don't make a right. If the Anti-Assad forces want to be legitimized as a credible and official alternative to the atrocious and malicious regime under President Assad, they must act like it. They can not carry out the type of horrific crimes that will only further inflame international opinion and alienate potential allies.
It is understandable in some sense the type of desperation on the part of the rebels. They have been battling the Assad regime for over a year and a half now and have received little to no international support or even condemnation of Assad's regime. With Russia and China's defiance in the face of international pressure, Assad's regime has gotten away with almost no penalization in the wake of the mass murders and crimes against humanity him and his militia forces have committed since the uprising nearly two years ago.
Although this may be the case, a tactic like this can not help the cause of the rebels. It will only legitimate the government as the procurer of justice in the face of these 'terrorist' factions that 'seek to destabilize the Syrian society' as President Assad would like people to believe. Sadly enough if these types of crimes are to continue, his lies may become truths.
