The Human Rights Watch (HRW) has accused Syrian rebels of war crimes over the killing of 190 civilians from President Bashar Assad’s Alawite minority. AFP says that this is the largest atrocity attributed to rebel fighters.
In addition to the killings, HRW said that another 200 people, mostly women and children, were taken hostage in August.
The report goes on to state that as many as 67 people were executed or “unlawfully killed.”
It is believed that the killings began on August 4, the first day of the Eid Al-Fitr in a coordinated attack against the residents of villages in Latakia province, an Alawite stronghold. “These abuses were not the actions of rogue fighters,” said HRW’s Joe Stork.
“This operation was a coordinated, planned attack on the civilian population.”
Over 115,000 people have died in the Syrian uprising. As many as seven million people are believed to be in need of humanitarian aid. NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen said he sees no military solution to the 31-month conflict in Syria. He emphasized that a political solution was required to end the conflict.
