BEIRUT: A gory online video that appears to show Hezbollah fighters executing gravely wounded Syrian rebels has sparked outrage and threatens to worsen sectarian tensions in Lebanon.
The video shows armed men in fatigues, at least one wearing the yellow arm band sported by the Lebanese Shiite movement, dragging several bloodied men out of a van and shooting them dead.
The men speak in the Lebanese dialect of Arabic, and at the end of the video one man calls them over, saying: “One moment, one moment. We are doing our duty, not avenging ourselves.”
The others call out: “For the sake of God, for the sake of God.” The one minute, 40 second video’s authenticity could not be confirmed, and it was unclear when or where it might have been shot. Hezbollah declined to comment.
Al Arabiya television said it may have been filmed during the battle for Qusayr, a strategic Syrian town near the Lebanese border that Syrian troops recaptured from rebels with the help of Hezbollah earlier this year.
If confirmed, the video could stoke sectarian tensions in Lebanon, where political factions are bitterly split between support for the Sunni-led insurgency and President Bashar Al Assad’s regime, a close ally of Iran and Hezbollah.
Lebanese media largely steered clear of the video, either because they were unable to confirm it or for fear of worsening tensions.
But the video triggered outrage on Twitter, with many observers comparing Hezbollah to radical Sunni rebel groups that have carried out past atrocities.
“Between the Sunni Salafi jihadists and the Shia fundamentalist jihadists, we really have to watch our backs,” wrote Mustafa Fahas on Facebook. “Horrific and disgusting,” Lebanese editor Angie Nassar wrote in a Twitter post linking to the video.
Hezbollah has come under intense criticism for its decision to enter the Syrian civil war on behalf of the Assad regime.
AFP
