As my colleague Anne Barnard reports, an investigation from Human Rights Watch released on Friday bolsters claims that Syrian rebels conducted a massacre of civilians this August in Latakia, the heartland of President Bashar al-Assad’s ruling Alawite sect.
According to the Human Rights Watch report, at least 190 civilians were killed by Islamist rebels in the Latakia countryside on Aug. 4, and more than 200 noncombatants, mostly women and children, are still being held hostage
Lama Fakih, the rights group’s deputy director in Beirut, visited the area last month after it was recaptured by government forces to gather evidence and speak with survivors. A video report, which combines footage recorded during Ms. Fakih’s visit with images of the raid and its distressing aftermath posted online by the rebels and the government, makes a compelling case that the rebels executed civilians, including women and the disabled.
