Monday a video circulated around the web showing a Syrian rebel biting into pieces of another dead Syrian guy.
Now Time magazine reporters who initially saw the video in April have had it confirmed, and they've also talked directly to the star of the show, Khalid al Hamad, to find out exactly why he did it.
“We opened (the dead fighter's) cell phone and I found a clip of a woman and her two daughters fully naked and he was humiliating them, and sticking a stick here and there,” Hamad told Time.
What Hamad describes is a common symptom of war: the tit-for-tat desecration or mutilation of remains. One instance of battlefield disrespect doesn't excuse the other, of course, but it's hard not to see a bit of the bigger picture.
Hamad, as it turns out, isn't a big study on anatomy: he thought he was biting into a liver, when a surgeon working with Time later confirmed it was a lung.
Needless to say, several organizations — Human rights watch and the Supreme Military Council of the Free Syrian Army — are calling for the arrest of Hamad. Some groups have called for even worse.
From Time:
The [Free Syran Army] Supreme Military Council, which according to the leadership oversees about 90% of the fighting groups in Syria, has issued a poster—circulated on Facebook—calling for al Hamad’s arrest, saying it wants him “dead or alive.” In response, supporters have posted stylized portraits of al Hamad cradling a rifle. “We Love You,” reads the inscription.
You can read Time's whole report here >
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