Syrian rebel leader admits he cut out heart of dead government soldier and ATE it but claims victim

was a sex abuser

Rebel is Khalid al Hamad, a founder of the rebel Farouq Brigade Al Hamad rants: 'I swear we'll eat from your hearts and livers, you dogs' He then raises one of the organs to his mouth and takes a bite
By Matt Blake and Jill Reilly PUBLISHED: 15:38 GMT, 14 May 2013 | UPDATED: 15:35 GMT, 15 May 2013

A Syrian rebel filmed cutting out and eating the lung of a dead government soldier has said he has no regrets. The man in the brutal video has identified himself as Khalid al Hamad and insists that the brutality of the regime had driven him to the extreme act. 'Our slogan is an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth,' he told TIME magazine. The unverified clip, posted by a pro-government campaign group shows Khalid al Hamad- who also goes by the name Abu Sakkar - the well-known founder of Homs' Farouq Brigade - standing over the uniformed corpse in a ditch while ranting against President Bashar al Assad.

GRAPHIC CONTENT WARNING: Scroll down for video.

Horrific: The amateur video posted on the Internet on Sunday shows Khalid al Hamad, a founder of the rebel Farouq Brigade who is well known to journalists as an insurgent from Homs, cutting into the torso of a dead soldier

Remorseless: After removing what appears to be the dead man's heart, Al Hamad then reaches into the chest cavity

Using a knife, the man hacks open the torso and removes two organs before holding them up to the camera and declaring: 'I swear to God we will eat your hearts and your livers, you soldiers of Bashar the dog.' He then raises one to his mouth and takes a bite. Al Hamad who is Sunni and has a sectarian hatred for Alawite Muslims insists the video captures the first time he had ever attempted to eat an enemys liver.

Gory: Brandishing the organs for the camera to see, Al Hamad continues his rant against Assad's government

'Soldier's heart cut out and eaten' in horrific propaganda video

'We opened his cell phone and I found a clip of a woman and her two daughters fully naked and he was humiliating them, and sticking a stick here and there,' Al Hamad told TIME magazine via Skype phone call yesterday. He said he has another gruesome video of him killing a government soldier from the Alawite faith and sawing him into pieces. The Supreme Military Council has issued a poster - circulated on Facebook - calling for al Hamads arrest, saying it wants him 'dead or alive.' The video, posted on YouTube by and billed as proof of a war crime, is the latest installment of a propaganda war that is growing fast behind the scenes of this bloody conflict. Last month, a photograph was released by a pro-Assad group based in Lebanon that appeared to show a young rebel fighter barbecuing the severed head of a government soldier.

Experts say such images demonstrate that the battlefield has spread from rubble-strewn streets and war-churned fields to the internet as both sides vie to control their public image and discredit that of their opposition. Meanwhile, human rights groups say it is emblematic of a civil war that has rapidly descended into sectarian hatred and revenge killings. In the most recent video, Al Hamad tells the camera: 'I swear to God we will eat your hearts and your livers, you soldiers of Bashar the dog,' His rant is greeted by offscreen cheers of his comrades shouting 'Allahu akbar (God is great)'.

Controversial: The video has caused outrage among both supporters of President Bashar al-Assad and opposition figures

PR war: The video, posted on YouTube by and billed as proof of a war crime, is the latest installment of a propaganda war that is growing fast behind the scenes of this bloody conflict

Peter Bouckaert of Human Rights Watch said that he had seen an original, unedited copy of the video and that Al Hamad's identity had been confirmed by rebel sources in Homs and by images of him in other videos wearing the same black jacket as in the latest clip and with the same rings on his fingers. 'The mutilation of the bodies of enemies is a war crime. But the even more serious issue is the very rapid descent into sectarian rhetoric and violence,' said Bouckaert. He said that in the unedited version of the film, Al Hamad instructs his men to 'slaughter the Alawites and take their hearts out to eat them', before biting into the heart. Al Hamad has been seen in previous videos firing rockets at Lebanese Shi'ite villages on the border and posing with the body of a soldier purportedly from the Lebanese Shi'ite militant Hezbollah group, which is helping Assad's forces. The Syrian conflict started with peaceful protests in March 2011, but when these were suppressed it gradually turned into an increasingly sectarian civil war which, according to one opposition monitoring group, has cost more than 80,000 lives. Majority Sunni Muslims lead the revolt, while Assad - whose family have ruled for over four decades - gets his core support from his own Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam.

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Comments (179)
Newest Oldest Best rated Worst rated View all Well done Hague and co. this is the type of moron you are supporting and considering arming. God/Allah, or whichever sky fairy you worship, help you Syria you are going to need it if these lot eventually succeed. - Dave , Ashbourne, United Kingdom, 15/5/2013 12:03 Click to rate Report abuse The western world, led by the US and UK, will do anything to carry out the orders of their masters. Even if it means allying yourselves with Al Qaeda to destroy arab countries. - Price Tag , Stamford Hill, United Kingdom, 15/5/2013 12:01 Rating 108

Click to rate Report abuse

Rating 60

According to some news reports today, the guy did it to a soldier who had photos on his phone of him raping women and children from this guy's village or family. I'm condoning what he did, but I can understand where he's coming from. - Marcus , London, United Kingdom, 15/5/2013 12:00 Click to rate Report abuse I didn't know Hannibal Lecter was a Syrian Sunni. - Notamuslim thankGod , Nottingham, 15/5/2013 11:59 Click to rate Report abuse When I see your opposition eating your body parts you might be right but until then you are just a sick man and if the rest of your commrades think the same it is not surprising that the rest of the world has little sympathy for you. - Jane , Milton Keynes, 15/5/2013 11:55 Click to rate Report abuse US and UK now can resort to Plan B. They gotta save the Syrian civilians from this cannibal before protecting them from Assad. - Tariq Abideen , New Delhi, 15/5/2013 11:54 Click to rate Report abuse From War on Terror to aiding Arab Spring to hand-holding cannibals, your governments are proving to be enemy of mankind. US/UK governments are worse than this cannibal. - Tariq Abideen , New Delhi, 15/5/2013 11:48 Click to rate Report abuse And to think our Pm and Mr Hague still want to supply them with arms . The PM and Mr Hague should just remember whos money they are spending OURS , When they are trying to look good to the rest of the world ???????????????????????????? - bill , Lowestoft, 15/5/2013 11:44 Click to rate Report abuse Message to our government - don't help these people. Some people are just beyond civilising. - anon , a-, land Islands, 15/5/2013 11:42 Click to rate Report abuse Rating 69 Rating 49 Rating 1 Rating 29 Rating 49 Rating 53 Rating 78

And these are the guys our government is arming to fight Assad, Smart move boys!! NOT!!!! - Passhaaret , London, 15/5/2013 11:19 Click to rate Report abuse The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline. Rating 64

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