Islamist Syrian rebels behead wrong man
Militants ask for ‘understanding and forgiveness’ after publicly decapitating fellow fighter and putting his head on display
Yifa Yaakov is a breaking news editor at The Times of Israel.
Islamist Syrian rebels belonging to a group linked to al-Qaeda sought “understanding and forgiveness” after decapitating a man who later turned out to be a member of another rebel group.
The rebels had originally accused the man of belonging to a Shi’ite Iraqi militia fighting for Syrian President Bashar Assad.
The rebels, members of the al-Qaeda-linked Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), beheaded the man in a public execution on the streets of Aleppo after announcing that the accused belonged to a pro-Assad group.
The execution was filmed and posted on the web, after which the rebels’ mistake quickly became apparent. The beheading victim was soon identified as Mohammed Fares, a member of Ahrar al-Sham, a fellow Sunni rebel group which also has Islamist leanings.
In the video footage of the executions, the ISIS fighters can be seen holding up a man’s head in front of an incensed crowd.
The Daily Telegraph quoted the Syrian Observatory of Human Rights as saying Thursday that Fares was killed due to a misunderstanding.
He had been wounded in battle with the Shi’ite militia to which he was later suspected to belong. He then mentioned the Shi’ite imams Ali and Hussein, causing the ISIS rebels to mistake him for an enemy fighter.
The Telegraph quoted ISIS spokesman Omar al-Qahtani as saying the ISIS militiamen had actually been taking the wounded fighter to the hospital when he spoke to them. Thinking the fighter was asking to be killed, the ISIS militants then beheaded him, according to Qahtani.
The Times of Israel Community.