Backed Syrian Rebels Film Themselves Beheading 10 Year-Old Boy

One fighter shouts “We will leave no one in Handarat”, an area north of Aleppo city, where there has been fighting between rebels and government forces.

It said those responsible were handed over to a judicial committee, and denounced the killing as a “violation”.

Harakat Nour al-Din al-Zenki.

The video that emerged on social media showed a visibly frightened boy lying in the back of a truck alongside what appeared to be several rebel fighters.

Another harrowing video shows a knife-wielding fighter beheading the child, who has been laid down on the trunk with his hand cuffed behind his back.

Activists accused the Nurredin Zinki rebel group of carrying out the killing, but the group issued a statement condemning a “violation” and calling it “an individual mistake, that does not represent the general policy of the group”.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said the video shows fighters from rebel factions “slaughtering a boy member from the gunmen loyal to the regime”.

Liwa al-Quds issued a statement on Facebook saying that its investigation had found he was a 12-year-old Palestinian named Abdullah Issa, who lived in Mashhad with his family.

“By taking one glance at the child – the argument that he was a fighter is immediately disapproved”, the group said.

U.S. State Department spokesman Mark Toner said Washington was seeking more information on what he described as “an appalling report”.

The group is engaged in a bloody war against forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad.

The killing was also condemned by the opposition Syrian National Coalition, which expressed “shock at the horrific scenes” and urged the faction to follow through on its pledge to investigate and punish the perpetrators.

The group accused of being responsible for the beheading, the Nour al-Din al-Zinki Movement, was reportedly one of the groups the US government supported and provided weapons to in the fight against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad. “It is yet another gruesome example of the summary killing of captives, which amounts to a war crime”, said Philip Luther, Director of Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa Programme.

The briefing features cases of people who were abducted and tortured by the Nour al-Dine Zinki Movement.

Pro-government forces are now attempting to capture Handarat in recent weeks.