BEIRUT: A video of a Syrian rebel commander cutting the heart out of a soldier and biting into is emblematic of a civil war that has rapidly descended into sectarian hatred and revenge killings, Human Rights Watch said yesterday.
The New York-based group said an amateur video posted on the Internet on Sunday shows Abu Sakkar, a founder of the rebel Farouq Brigade who is well known to journalists as an insurgent from Homs, cutting into the torso of a dead soldier.
The video has caused outrage among both supporters of President Bashar Al Assad and opposition figures.
“I swear to God we will eat your hearts and your livers, you soldiers of Bashar the dog,” the man says to offscreen cheers of his comrades shouting “Allahu akbar (God is great)”.
Peter Bouckaert of Human Rights Watch said that he had seen an original, unedited copy of the video and that Abu Sakkar’s identity had been confirmed by rebel sources in Homs and by images of him in other videos wearing the same black jacket as in the latest clip and with the same rings on his fingers.
“The mutilation of the bodies of enemies is a war crime. But the even more serious issue is the very rapid descent into sectarian rhetoric and violence,” said Bouckaert.
He said that in the unedited version of the film, Abu Sakkar instructs his men to “slaughter the Alawites and take their hearts out to eat them”, before biting into the heart.
Iran expects ‘progress’ in nuclear talks
VIENNA: Iran expects progress will be made in talks this week with the United Nations’ atomic agency, Tehran’s nuclear envoy said yesterday, but Western diplomats held out little hope of an end to the deadlock.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has been trying for more than a year to coax Iran into letting it resume a stalled investigation into suspected atomic bomb research by Tehran, which denies any aims to make nuclear weapons.
Tomorrow’s talks in Vienna will be the 10th round of negotiations between the two sides since early 2012, so far without an agreement that would give the IAEA the access to sites, officials and documents it says it needs for its inquiry.
Agencies
