Syrian forces 'carrying out mass arrests and executions' in Homs

The accounts of atrocities coincide with the regime's continued refusal to allow the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to enter Baba Amr, which was captured by the army last week. President Bashar al-Assad's regime has broken an earlier assurance that the ICRC would be allowed in, suggesting that his army is trying to cover up the aftermath of the fighting.

A resident of Homs styling himself Abu Abdo told the Daily Telegraph how his 17-year-old cousin was caught up in a bloody reprisal attack in Baba Amr carried out by government troops and militiamen from Mr Assad's Alawite sect.

"They laid the men on the ground. Their hands were tied behind their backs, and their faces pressed to the floor," said Abu Abdo. "The soldiers began jumping and dancing across the bodies of the alive men, and hitting them on their backs with their rifle butts." As they beat their victims, the militiamen, known as the "Shabiha", were laughing and jeering. Abu Abdo's cousin remembered them saying: "Do you think you will get your freedom now oh terrorist?"

After tormenting their captives, the soldiers and militiamen began executing them. "They used bayonets on the ends of their guns to stab the men in the back. One grabbed a prisoner by the hair and slit his throat," said Abu Abdo. Four men were killed in this way. But the frenzied brutality became too much for one of the militiamen. "He grabbed the shoulder of the others, and told them to stop," said Abu Abdo. The man is believed to have said: "If we are going to kill them, then let's shoot them." The men retreated and Abu Abdo's cousin was able to escape.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/syria/9124586/Syrian-forces-carrying-out-mass-arrests-and-executions-in-Homs.html