Syria summarily executing defenseless rebels, civilians, soldiers, Human Rights Watch says (Video)

Syrian forces summarily executed at least 101 civilians as well as wounded and captured rebel fighters in recent attacks on populated areas, according to Human Rights Watch.

In a report released today, he organization said the organization said the number of those killed in this way could in fact be much greater.

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Human Rights Watch said it had documented at least a dozen occasions involving 101 people killed since the late last year with many killed last month.

“Human Rights Watch documented the involvement of Syrian forces and pro-government shabeeha militias in summary and extrajudicial executions in the governorates of Idlib and Homs,” the organization said in a statement.

Human Rights Watch published this YouTube video of interviews with people claiming to have witnessed the killings of people who posed no threat to government forces:

With his face not shown, a man identified as “Khaled,” 27, of Kherbet al-Jouz, a village near the Turkish border, tells of the summary execution of two men denounced as disloyal soldiers in the town square in front of 500 assembled men and women.

"They started to shoot at them. They were about four soldiers and each shot about 30 bullets,” the man says.

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Reuters reported today that the US had dismissed Syrian demands made ahead of Thursday’s deadline to enforce a ceasefire. Appearing to create a pretext not to abide by its terms, Damascus on Sunday demanded that rebels offer guarantees in writing that they would also lay down their arms.

"This is just more chaff being thrown up in the air at the last minute to deflect attention form the fact that the regime is not meeting the commitments that they made to Kofi Annan," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland was quoted as saying.