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| Body of executed government soldier found in mass grave |
A Human Rights Watch (HRW) report on the killings of Alawite villagers has pointed accusatory fingers of war crimes at the Syrian rebels backed by the United States and its western allies.
The vast majority of victims were women and children the rights group asserts and after being taken hostage, most (if not all) were summarily executed.
The report also urged an arms embargo on groups suspected of war crimes or crimes against humanity and calls for an end to the "unlawful" killings in the war, particularly from the rebels.
It comes as NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen said he sees no military solution to the 31-month conflict which has killed more than 115,000 people.
HRW said the killings began on August 4, the first day of the Eid Al-Fitr holiday ending the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, in provincial Latakia villages, a stronghold of the Alawites whose faith is an offshoot of Shia Islam.
"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."
The 105-page report, based on interviews with 35 survivors, emergency personnel and fighters on both sides, said at least 20 groups were involved, but that five "are responsible for specific incidents that amount to war crimes".
It named them as Ahrar al-Sham, Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), Al-Nusra Front, Jaish al-Muhajireen Wal-Ansar and Suqur al-Ezz.
HRW said that, in some cases, opposition fighters who are mostly Sunni Muslims executed or gunned down entire families, or killed the elderly or infirm who had been left behind by those who fled.
It also said "some of the opposition atrocities... had clear sectarian motivation".
In one village, it said fighters intentionally damaged an Alawite maqam, a site where a religious figure is buried, and "appear to have intentionally damaged and dug up the grave".
It said they had also abducted and executed the area's Alawite religious leader, quoting Al-Nusra as saying he had been executed because he supported the regime.
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