Dozens found executed in Aleppo massacre

At least 65 people were found shot dead with their hands bound in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo yesterday in a new massacre in the near two-year revolt against president Bashar al-Assad, activists said.

The government and rebels trying to overthrow it blamed each other for the latest mass killing.

Assad’s forces and rebels have been battling in Syria’s commercial hub since July and both have been accused of carrying out summary executions.

Also yesterday, a bomb wounded former governor of the central province of Hama, Abdul-Razzak Qtini, as he was in his car, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and a neighbour said.

Mr Qtini is receiving treatment in a Damascus hospital.

More than 60,000 people are estimated to have been killed in the Syrian war, the longest and deadliest of the revolts that began throughout the Arab world two years ago.

The UN refugee agency said yesterday the fighting had forced more than 700,000 people to flee.

World powers fear the conflict could increasingly envelop Syria’s neighbours including Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey.

Opposition activists posted a video of a man filming at least 51 muddied male bodies alongside what they said was the Queiq River in Aleppo’s rebel-held Bustan al-Qasr neighbourhood.

The bodies had bullet wounds in their heads and some of the victims appeared to be young, possibly teenagers, dressed in jeans, shirts and trainers.

Aleppo-based opposition activists, who asked not to be named for security reasons, blamed pro-Assad militia fighters.

They said the males had been executed and dumped in the river before floating downstream into the rebel area. State media did not mention the incident.

The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which says it provides objective information about casualties on both sides of Syria’s war from a network of monitors, said the footage was evidence of a new massacre and the death toll could rise as high as 80.

“They were killed only because they are Muslims,” said a man in another video said to have been filmed in central Bustan al-Qasr after the bodies were removed from the river. A truck with a pile of corpses was parked behind him.

It is hard for Reuters to verify reports from inside Syria because of restrictions on independent media.

Rebels are stuck in a stalemate with government forces in Aleppo — Syria’s most populous city which is divided roughly in half between the two sides.

The revolt started as a peaceful protest movement against more than four decades of rule by Assad and his family, but turned into an armed rebellion after a government crackdown.

Reuters