Syria Rebels Using Caged Captives as 'Human Shields'

  • W460
  • W460
  • W460
  • W460

A major Syrian rebel group is using dozens of captives in metal cages as "human shields" in the largest opposition stronghold on the outskirts of Damascus, a monitor said Sunday. 

Jaish al-Islam, regarded as the most powerful rebel group near the capital, has put regime soldiers and Alawite civilians it was holding in metal cages, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights told AFP.

The group then placed these cages in public squares in the Eastern Ghouta region in an attempt to "prevent regime bombardment", Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said.

"Jaish al-Islam is using these captives and kidnapped people -- including whole families -- as human shields," he said.

Government forces regularly bombard the Eastern Ghouta area, from where rebel groups fire rockets into the capital.

On Friday, at least 70 people were killed and 550 wounded in regime bombardment of Douma, a large town in the area.

A video published by opposition news outlet Shaam Network showed cages of men and women, about five people in each, being transported on the backs of three lorries through war-ravaged streets as young children rode by on bicycles.

Speaking to camera, both men and women asked government forces to stop shelling Eastern Ghouta.

"Your women are our women. If you want to kill my mother, you will kill them too," a dark-eyed teenage boy said outside one of the trucks.

Abdel Rahman said most of the civilians were kidnapped by Jaish al-Islam two years ago outside Adra al-Ummaliyah, a regime-held neighborhood in Eastern Ghouta.

A Jaish al-Islam spokesman was not reachable for comment.

Both regime forces and rebel groups have been criticized by rights groups for indiscriminate attacks on civilians in Syria's war, which has killed more than 250,000 people since it began in March 2011.

Comments 5
Missing peace 02 November 2015, 00:11

"Jaish al-Islam, regarded as the most powerful rebel group near the capital, has put regime soldiers and Alawite civilians it was holding in metal cages, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights told AFP."

yiiiii! it cannot be true as it is the observatory that reports it... M8ers keep saying that a man from London cannot know what is happening in syria....

Missing panzergen 02 November 2015, 03:43

Desperate Pigs!! They know their time is short!!

Default-user-icon Middle East (Guest) 02 November 2015, 09:34

In Middle East we are all the same, just open your eyes and see who is doing what, all religious groups, sects and you name it, all of them are killing, lying, steeling, burning, poisoning and doing everything what it is written not to do in holy books and what is against humanity, simply, in the war there is no rules. All are the same no matter what they say to defend their acts.

Thumb megahabib 02 November 2015, 15:55

Only Saudi apes and their Salafist minions belong in cages.

Thumb kanaandian 02 November 2015, 18:52

something very special about the saudi wahabi death cult that makes it very distinctive to other religions around the world today.