Fighters from the
al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front have reportedly killed 22 people, including women, children and elderly men, in an Alawite village in central
Syria, a rights monitoring group said on Thursday.
The minority Alawite sect to which President
Bashar al-Assad belongs “is an offshoot of
Shi'ite Islam whose members have increasingly been targeted by radical fighters among the Sunni Muslim-dominated opposition in the 2-1/2-year revolt against
Assad,”
Reuters reported.
SEE ALSO: Al Qaeda-linked Syrian rebels force Christian to convert at gunpoint: ‘He’s one of ours now’The British-based
Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which is opposed to
Assad, said the victims included seven women, three men over the age of 65, and four children under the age of 16,
Reuters reported.
Rami Abdelrahman, head of the Observatory, said the victims were not members of any pro
-Assad militias. They were shot in their homes.
Source: | http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/sep/12/al-qaeda-linked-syrian-rebels-kill-7-women-4-child/
