June 12, 2013
Syrian rebels have attacked a village in the country’s east, killing dozens of Shia Muslims, activists said.
A Syrian government official on Wednesday denounced the attack that occurred a day earlier, saying it was a “massacre” of civilians.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 60 people were killed in the village of Hatla in the oil-rich province of Deir al-Zour, bordering Iraq.
A video supplied by the Observatory showed masked fighters shouting, “Here are the Mujahidin [Islamist fighters] celebrating entering the homes of the rejectionists, the Shias.” The authenticity of the video could not be independently verified.
The fighters added that they “burned the homes” of the Shia residents. Read more…
In amateur videos, the fighters — some wearing al-Qaida-style headbands — vented anti-Shiite slurs and fired in the air.
“The homes of the infidel Shiites were burned,” the voice behind the camera in one video shouted as smoke rose in the background from several houses.
In another video, the fighters pulled blankets off corpses to show them off, one with a wound to the head. A gunman talking to the camera gloated, saying, “This is your end, dogs.” The videos appeared genuine and conformed with other Associated Press reporting on the events depicted.
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“People of Kuwait, Sunni people of Kuwait, you will be held responsible if you don’t kill the Shiites in your country,” the fighter, with a black al-Qaida type headband, said, explaining that signs of Shiite Kuwaiti funds were found in the village. “Help your religion, not necessarily the Syrian people.”-AP
