Syria ‘heart-eating’ rebel killed

Beirut — A Syrian fighter who appeared in a gruesome video cutting out the heart of a regime soldier and eating it has been shot dead by rival rebels, a monitoring group said. Known by his nom de guerre Abu Sakkar, the rebel reportedly joined the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Al-Nusra Front about a year ago, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. Rival rebels “assassinated Khaled Al-Hamad, who was known as Abu Sakkar and who was a military commander in Al-Nusra, by gunning him down” in the northwestern province of Idlib, the Observatory said late on Tuesday. In May 2013, Abu Sakkar appeared in a video showing him eating the heart of a dead regime soldier, sparking an international outcry and condemnation from the mainstream Syrian opposition. At the time, he was fighting in a rebel brigade in central Homs province. “He was likely killed in a settling of accounts” between Al-Nusra, which dominates much of Idlib province, and other Islamist rebels in the area, Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman said. The Syrian conflict began as a peaceful uprising against President Bashar Al-Assad in March 2011 but swiftly escalated into an armed rebellion after his regime unleashed a brutal crackdown. — AFP