Anti-Assad Forces: Caught in the Act Again

by Stephen Lendman

Previous articles discussed Washington-supported death squads in Syria. It's common practice in all US direct and proxy wars.

Massacres and unspeakable atrocities are committed. Women are raped. Civilians are treated like combatants. Official coverup and denial follow.

Vietnam's Operation Phoenix became a prototype for today's wars. Terrorizing people into submission is official US policy.

Guns for hire are enlisted, armed, funded, trained, and directed. Nothing too heinous is out of bounds. Killing continues daily like sport. So do gruesome atrocities.

In March 2012, Der Spiegel discussed the "Homs burial brigade." An insurgent "executioner" said he and comrades "kill in the name of the Syrian revolution. They leave torture (to) the so-called interrogation brigade...."

"They do the ugly work." He believes in violence, he said. He "cut the throats of four men." He machine-gunned many more. Executions happen regularly. Atrocities are routinely committed.

On May 14, Russia Today discussed a graphic video. It showed an insurgent commander mutilating a Syrian soldier's corpse. Images showed him cutting out a soldier's heart and liver.

He held the organs in his hands. He appeared to bite into them. He addressed the camera, saying:

"I swear to God we will eat your hearts and your livers, you soldiers of Bashar the dog." Others off-camera chanted "Allahu akbar (God is great)."

The person filming said "God bless you, Abu Sakkar. You look like you are drawing (carving) a heart of love on him."

Even Human Rights Watch (HRW) was outraged. Nearly always it's reliably pro-Western. It backs NATO's imperial wars. It supports Washington's regime change plans. It's one-sidedly anti-Assad.

On May 13, HRW headlined "Syria: Brigade Fighting in Homs Implicated in Atrocities," saying:

HRW reviewed graphic images discussed above. They "show a commander of the opposition 'Independent Omar al-Farouq' brigade mutilating the corpse of a pro-government fighter."

What's "independent" about it HRW didn't explain. Most insurgents are recruited abroad. They come from numerous countries. They're enlisted to fight Assad.

Khalid al-Hamad (aka Abu Sakkar) is seen cutting out a heart and liver on camera. He "use(d) sectarian language to insult (pro-Assad) Alawites." The same brigade committed other atrocities.

"Because of the extremely graphic and disturbing nature of the video, (HRW) decided not to publicly release the footage…."

HRW's emergencies director Peter Bouckaert explained what he saw, saying:

"We received an original copy of this video from one of our sources working on Syria last week."

"The version we have is unedited and much clearer than what has been posted on YouTube, so we have been analysing this video for the last week, and we have firmly established that the person in the video mutilating this soldier, cutting out his heart and his liver, and then making some very extreme statements about the Alawite community, before putting the liver in his mouth, is a commander known as Abu Sakkar, who is the commander of an independent brigade called the Independent Omar al-Farouq brigade currently fighting around the town of Qusayr."

"We have analysed the video in great detail."

"In fact, he