In a gruesome video released on social media websites on Monday, a number of fighters from the Nurideen al-Zenki Movement, a US-supported rebel faction that has been fighting pro-Assad forces in the rebel-held city of Aleppo appear to behead a bound 12 year old Palestinian boy in the back of a pickup truck.
According to the video and various news sources, the rebels accused Abdullah Issa, 12, of the Handarat Refugee Camp in Northern Aleppo of being a member of “Lima al-Quds” (the Jerusalem Brigade). Lima al-Quds is a Palestinian militia that supports president Bashar al-Assad’s regime in the Syrian civil war. After being captured, the child was handcuffed, put in the back of a pickup truck, and executed on camera by the militants.
The killers have provoked outrage both inside and outside of Syria, with everyone from pro-regime factions to the United States to the Nurideen al-Zenki Movement themselves condemning the execution.
The video has also given critics of the various Syrian rebel factions ammunition to discredit movements against his regime, perhaps most notably the claim that the Free Syrian Army and other armed factions fighting against the Syrian government are comprised of “moderate rebels”.
لم نعد نعرف مالمقصود بالمقاومة المعتدلة!
— خالد الوابل (@kwabil) July 20, 2016
جماعة نور الدين الزنكي والتي قامت بقطع رأس الطفل في حلب مدعومة امريكيا !!https://t.co/ievefkm1ZQ
"We no longer know what's intended by "moderate rebels".
The Noureddine al-Zenki group who beheaded the child in Aleppo is supported by the US!"
Ppl are so brainwashed that even when the media TELLS them the kid beheaders were US-backed they still think its #IS pic.twitter.com/8Vf36OmMHY
— Partisangirl (@Partisangirl) July 20, 2016
“I was horrified, but not surprised because over the last five years, I had seen and covered horrifying atrocities committed by the so called ‘moderate rebels’,” Mimi Al Laham-a Syrian-Australian political analyst-told Al Bawaba. “This is the first time that any group has beheaded a child.” Google and YouTube searches in English and Arabic appear to corroborate her claim that this is the first known beheading a youth.
The rebel group responsible for the beheading also condemned the action, and released the following statement via their Twitter account:
THE NURIDEEN ZENKI MOVEMENT
— حركةنور الدين الزنكي (@NDZankiMotion) July 19, 2016
DECLARATION pic.twitter.com/qyciLwLkEA
The US government was quick to reply to the video. Mark Toner of the US State Department told reporters yesterday that if the video is authenticated, it could give the US “pause” in its support of the Nurideen al-Zenki Movement - though he did not give specifics. Previously, the US has maintained its position of carefully vetting rebel groups and arming them against the Syrian regime.
Although an independent analyst, Al Laham joins the ranks of other Syrians who wholly reject this US policy. “Interestingly, [the video] came from a group the US-backed, that the US said were vetted moderates compared to ISIS (Daesh) and Nusra,” she said. “Myself and other Syrians have always said there were no moderates; they were all terrorists.”
The Syrian conflict has been raging since 2011 with various militant factions waging war on the regime, one another, or both. Surrounding Arab states, Turkey, Russia, and the United States are all large sources of financial aid to the major factions and also active participants in the war. This participation has caused controversy in recent months, with both Russian and American airstrikes leading to numerous civilian casualties throughout Syria.
