The video starts out like so many of the dozens coming out of the war in Syria every day, with the camera
hovering over the body of a dead Syrian soldier. But the next frame makes it
clear why this video, smuggled out of the city of Homs and into Lebanon with a rebel fighter, and
obtained by TIME in April, is particularly shocking. In the video a man who is
believed to be a rebel commander named Khalid al-Hamad, who goes by the nom de
guerre Abu Sakkar, bends over the government soldier, knife in hand. With his
right hand he moves what appears to be the dead man’s heart onto a flat piece of
wood or metal lying across the body. With his left hand he pulls what appears to
be a lung across the open cavity in the man’s chest. According to two of Abu
Sakkar’s fellow rebels, who said they were present at the scene, Abu Sakkar had
cut the organs out of the man’s body. The man believed to be Abu Sakkar then
works his knife through the flesh of the dead man’s torso before he stands to
face the camera, holding an organ in each hand. “I swear we will eat from your
hearts and livers, you dogs of Bashar,” he says, referring to supporters of
Syrian President Bashar Assad. Off camera, a small crowd can be heard calling
out “Allahu akbar” — God is great. Then the man raises one of the
bloodied organs to his lips and starts to tear off a chunk with his teeth.
Two TIME reporters first saw the video in April in the presence of several of
Abu Sakkar’s fighters and supporters, including his brother. They all said the
video was authentic. We later obtained a copy. Since then TIME has been trying
to ensure that the footage is not digitally manipulated in any way — a faked
film like this would be powerful propaganda for the regime, which portrays the
rebels as terrorists — and, as yet, TIME has not been able to confirm its
integrity. Abu Sakkar has not commented on whether the man in the video is
indeed him because he is currently fighting on the front lines in Syria,
according to fighters under his command. The video became public on May 12 when
it was posted online by a proregime group and is indeed now being used as
propaganda by regime supporters (and has already been shared 1,115 times on
Facebook and has over 46,000 views on YouTube). These 27 seconds of footage
provide a glimpse at how brutal the Syrian war has become — and a startling
example of how technology appears to be fueling that brutality.
http://world.time.com/2013/05/12/atrocities-will-be-televised-they-syrian-war-takes-a-turn-for-the-worse/