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Ribal Al-Assad appalled at massacre of Syrian soldiers

Thursday, 28 August 2014

Syrian soldiers march to their death in ISIS massacre

NEW YORK POST

In a sickening display of savagery, Islamic State militants paraded 250 nearly naked captured soldiers through the Syrian desert before forcing them to their knees and mercilessly gunning them down from behind.

Wearing only their briefs, the soldiers were marched through the sand by rifle-toting, flag-waving thugs before they were executed and piled on top of one another.

When it was over, the bullet-ridden bodies were left to rot in the searing sun by the jihadists, who heaped on even more ignominy by broadcasting the bloodbath to the world on YouTube.

“The 250 shabeeha taken captive by the Islamic State from Tabqa in Raqqa have been executed,” read a caption that ran with the video.

“Shabeeha” is the Islamist name for soldiers loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Taqba is the name of an air base in the Syrian city of Raqqa.

“Yes,” an Islamic State fighter in Raqqa told Reuters. “We have executed them all.”

Days before the video surfaced Thursday, Islamic State stormed the air base and claimed to have captured soldiers in the raid.

It’s unclear if the men in the video are from the same base.

Despite heavy losses on both sides during the battle, the base’s capture stirred fresh fears that the fighters acquired advanced military technology, including warplanes, tanks, artillery and ammunition, which will allow them to bolster their stronghold.

The radical terrorist group, which last week beheaded captured American journalist James Foley, controls about a third of Syria and parts of Iraq and has pitted itself against the Syrian army.

The terrorists claimed Foley was killed in retaliation for American airstrikes in Iraq.

The march of death underscores how the group uses images of violence as much as violence itself to terrorize its opponents.

In the video, an Islamic State fighter repeatedly shouts, “Islamic State,” to which the men reply, “It shall remain.”

The video then fades to black and resumes with the image of bloodied bodies stacked on top of one another.

In one outtake, the camera pans slowly across a long line of men who appear to be dead. Their bodies are laid out one by one.

A full minute passes before the cameraman reaches the end of the line.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the war, put the death toll at more than 120. At least 150 bodies are visible in the shaky video.

Islamic State, also known as ISIS, put the number at 250.

Human Rights Watch described the video as “another ISIS war crime.”

Another video shows a large room with captured men, including one who is questioned by ISIS fighters.

“How many have you killed? How many have you raped?” the interrogator shouts.

The soldier replies, “None. I’ve been stationed here in the airport.”

The interrogator asks why the soldier had been fighting for Assad and did not defect. The soldier replies that he would have just been sent back to the army.

“They would have sent you right back to the army? And we’re going to send you right back to hell, by slaughter,” the interrogator says.

The video was posted a day after a UN report detailed horrific human-rights abuses by Islamic State in Syria.

The war crimes include the beheading of boys as young as 15, as well as amputations and whippings — all in public squares where families are forced to watch, the 45-page report said.

The report added that public executions “have become a common spectacle on Fridays” — the day when Muslim men are summoned to prayer in mosques.

Meanwhile, Syrian rebels captured 43 UN peacekeepers near the border with the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights after heavy fighting between terrorists not affiliated with ISIS and government troops.

Responding to the news, ODFS Director, Ribal Al-Assad said:

"This was evidently a brutal and inhuman massacre of unarmed soldiers in cold blood.

There is no doubt that this is a war crime of the highest order and displays the heinous and perverted mentality of the Islamist militant faction.

How can a person treat another human in this way?

These people need to be stopped and the perpetrators of this horrific act brought to justice.

My thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families at this time."

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