US-Backed ‘Moderate Rebels’ Filmed Beheading Palestinian Child in Northern Syria
TEHRAN (Tasnim) - As if to punctuate a recent report by Amnesty International detailing the human rights violations committed by several US backed rebel factions in Syria, the Nour al-Din al-Zinki Movement, one of the US supported factions, has been caught on film beheading a young Palestinian boy.
The video shows fighters from the militant group with a boy who is described as 13-years-old, presenting it as capturing “an Assad soldier.” A second video was released showing them cutting the same boy’s head off in the back of a truck.
The incident took place in Hanadarat, where Syrian army has been fighting against a coalition of US-backed militants, which includes the Nour al-Din al-Zinki as well as the Free Syrian Army.
In practice, that’s rarely happened, with Amnesty’s report underscoring how common torture and summary executions actually are among the US-backed militants in Syria. Tuesday’s incident wasn’t out of the ordinary, and happened to become news because the video came out, the Anti-War news website reported.
The group no longer gets such backing. But it’s also renewed questions about which opposition groups the American government has supported in Syria's ongoing civil war.