Syria Rebels: Regime ‘Death Squad’ Massacred 72 Near Aleppo

Bodies Discovered Three Days After Govt Offensive Against Village

The rebel Syrian National Council is accusing the Assad government of committing a new massacre in the village of Malikiyeh, on the outskirts of the disputed city of Aleppo, reporting that 72 people were killed by “death squads.”

Details surrounding the incident are still hazy, but the villages was reportedly the target of a government offensive on Monday, and rebels claimed they just didn’t notice the massacre, which included several burnt homes, until Thursday evening, when they announced it publicly.

The rebel Aleppo Press Centre (APC) claimed that the dead included women and children “as young as eight months” were tortured and raped before theior executions. They urged the UN to investigate the situation.

The UN has repeatedly confirmed major war crimes committed by both regime and rebels, but with the US blocking resolutions criticizing the rebels and the Russian government blocking any criticizing the regime, fearing they will be used as an excuse for war, the prospect of referring the war criminals on either side to the international courts seems remote, at best.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.