Journalist Photographs, Details Beheadings by Rebels in Syria
Mon, September 16, 2013
This photo was shot moments before the beheading.
Time magazine has published pictures and a first-hand account from a photojournalist who was given unprecedented access to public beheadings carried out by rebels opposing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
An eyewitness to the event told Time magazine that the executioners belonged to ISIS, an Al-Qaeda faction fighting on the side of the rebels in Aleppo.
The public execution was one of four that took place on August 31 in the town of Keferghan in the north of Syria.
The picture forms part of a set taken by a non-Syrian photojournalist, whose identity has not been revealed in order to protect him. Among the other photos is an executioner lining up his sword before delivering the final blow as his victim kneels in the village square, and a victim's head being held aloft by a jubilant fighter.
The entire barbaric episode was watched by a crowd of cheering men, many of them armed. Women can also be discerned in the pictures, one in particular, appears to be standing right next to one of the victims.
Sitting on a low wall only a few feet from where the wretched captive died so violently is a line of young boys.
They were still there as the dead man's head was dumped on his body. Another child, even younger, was led by the hand past the corpse.
The victims were accused of belonging to the fearsome Shabiha ('Ghosts') -- thugs loyal to Assad who are said to roam the country massacring women and children.
TIME acquired the photographs exclusively from the photographer. They have agreed not to publish his name, in order to protect him from repercussions when he returns to Syria.
What follows is an edited account of his experience as published in Time:
The man was brought in to the square. His eyes were blindfolded. I began shooting pictures, one after the other. It was to be the fourth execution that day I would photograph. I was feeling awful; several times I had been on the verge of throwing up. But I kept it under control because as a journalist I knew I had to document this, as I had the three previous beheadings I had photographed that day, in three other locations outside Aleppo.
I saw a scene of utter cruelty: a human being treated in a way that no human being should ever be treated. But it seems to me that in two and a half years, the war has degraded people's humanity. On this day the people at the execution had no control over their feelings, their desires, their anger. It was impossible to stop them.
I don't know how old the victim was but he was young. He was forced to his knees. The rebels around him read out his crimes from a sheet of paper. They stood around him. The young man was on his knees on the ground, his hands tied. He seemed frozen.
At the moment of execution the rebels grasped his throat. The young man put up a struggle. Three or four rebels pinned him down. The man tried to protect his throat with his hands, which were still tied together. He tried to resist but they were stronger than he was and they cut his throat. They raised his head into the air. People waved their guns and cheered. Everyone was happy that the execution had gone ahead.
As a human being I would never have wished to see what I saw. But as a journalist I have a camera and a responsibility. I have a responsibility to share what I saw that day. That's why I am making this statement and that's why I took the photographs. I will close this chapter soon and try never to remember it.
Warning the following video contains graphic content:
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