Syria child execution puts rebel justice in spotlight

A 15-year-old boy was reportedly shot in front of his family by Syrian rebels.

Photographs of the bloodied face of a 14-year-old boy executed in front of his parents by jihadist rebels in northern Syria have thrown into stark relief the sometimes extreme justice meted out in rebel-held areas.

Fighters of Al-Qaeda front group the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria accused Mohammad Qattaa of blasphemy but a human rights group said he had done nothing more than use a common Arabic phrase that makes reference to the Prophet Mohammed8217;s name. Pictures of Qattaa8217;s face,bloodied by the three shots that cut short his life on Sunday,spread like wildfire on social media websites,prompting a strong condemnation of his killing from the mainstream opposition.

8220;If someone shot a dog in the street,people would act,8221; cried the boy8217;s grieving mother Umm Mohammed in amateur video footage distributed by activists. 8220;Where are his rights? He was a child! How could they kill him? 8220;They killed him right in front of my eyes. May God take revenge on them. I saw his blood streaming down,8221; she wailed. 8220;We are with neither side in Syria8217;s raging conflict. We just look after ourselves.Why did you kill my son? Is he a terrorist?8221; The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the militants responsible for the boy8217;s execution were foreign volunteers with the Al-Qaeda-linked Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. 8220;A member of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria spoken to by an Observatory activist said the boy deserved to die,8221; said Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman.

8220;Those who executed the boy were not Syrian,8221; he added. Large swathes of northern Syria have fallen into the hands of various rebel groups,some of them Islamist,which have set up their own justice systems in areas they control. Qattaa8217;s killing was the latest in a series of abuses by rebel fighters that have discomfited the mainstream opposition and its Western backers.

Just last month,amateur video showed a rebel fighter in the devastated province of Homs eating the organs of a slain soldier. Opposition National Coalition member Alia Mansour said: 8220;This execution is a crime against humanity and a crime against Syria8217;s revolution.8221; 8220;As the conflict develops,it is logical that we will see more problems of criminality emerge,8221; said Aron Lund,who has written extensively on the Syrian insurgency.