Damascus: Human rights activists have slammed the public execution of four apparent loyalists of Syrian President Bashar-al-Assad by rebels in Aleppo.
A recent video posted online showed the men, who included the alleged head of a feared local militia, being put up against a wall and shot with Kalashnikov rifles.
According to the BBC, Human Rights Watch slammed the act, calling it ‘potentially a war crime.’
“What it looks like is execution of detainees and if that is the case, that would be a war crime,” Clive Baldwin, a senior legal adviser for HRW said.
According to the report, there is no reason to doubt the authenticity of the video footage from Aleppo, purporting to show alleged members of the hated pro-regime shabiha militia being lynched after capture.
The head of the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which documents violence by all sides in the conflict, also condemned the killings by the rebels as ‘criminal’.
According to the report, Russia, one of Syria``s closest allies, however, said the video showed there were human rights violations on both sides.
Meanwhile, the UN mission in Syria reports that the rebels in Aleppo are now armed with some heavy weapons including tanks and says that helicopters, heavy machine guns and artillery are also being used in the fighting.
ANI
