Khalid al-Hamad, left, in an undated photo that originally appeared on the website of the Syrian rebel group, the Independent Omar al-Farouk Brigade, which he commands.
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Footage of the regime's atrocities abounds on YouTube and other sites. Videos and witness accounts recently obtained by human-rights-monitoring groups show and describe government-affiliated paramilitaries rampaging in early May through two villages--Baniyas and Al Badya, near the coastal area of central Syria--stabbing and burning scores of Sunni residents. Footage posted online by opposition groups from the area shows piles of burned, bloodied and partially mutilated corpses, including those of women and children. Activists have identified by name at least 140 victims, including about 20 members of one family. The Syrian government claimed that it had defeated "terrorist groups" and restored peace and security to the area.
Some videos appear to be posted by individual soldiers to demonstrate their toughness and frighten the rebels and their civilian supporters. One, posted to YouTube on May 6 and circulated on opposition Facebook pages, purports to show a Syrian soldier preparing to shoot a captive point-blank in the head. The soldier is speaking on the phone, it seems, to his mother. The woman's voice can be heard saying, "I am hearing you, Ali." As he pulls the trigger, the soldier says on the phone, "I will shoot a terrorist. Did you hear me, Mom?" Another video on an opposition site shows the savage beating to death of two men--identified as civilians--by regime thugs. An activist close to al-Hamad singled out that video as proof that the rebels are still better than the regime forces. "Our video shows only the torture of a dead body," he says. "The regime tortures Syrians to death."
Assad's soldiers and their commanders may some day discover that these videos can be used against them in war-crimes trials. For the antiregime forces, the more immediate danger is that al-Hamad's video and others showing atrocities by rebels are undermining their claim to the moral high ground in the fight against the dictator. "Such videos ruin our reputation, leading to a decrease in funding for the FSA," says Colonel Fatih Hassoun, head of the Homs Front of the FSA.
The furor over the al-Hamad video comes at an especially delicate moment for the rebels as the Obama Administration weighs whether it should provide them with military aid. But even before the cannibalism, there was growing documented evidence of extrajudicial killings, torture and desecration by other rebels.
Man With a Reputation