Syrian heart-eating fighter, Abu Sakkar, shot dead by rivals; was affiliated to Al-Qaeda

Beirut: A Syrian fighter who appeared in a gruesome video cutting out the heart of a regime soldier and eating it has been shot dead by rival rebels, a monitoring group said. Known by his nom de guerre Abu Sakkar, the rebel reportedly joined the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Al-Nusra Front about a year ago, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. Rival rebels “assassinated Khaled al-Hamad, who was known as Abu Sakkar and who was a military commander in Al-Nusra, by gunning him down” in the northwestern province of Idlib, the Observatory said late on Tuesday. [caption id=“attachment_2715348” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] An image grab taken on May 15, 2013 from an undated video uploaded on YouTube allegedly shows Khaled al-Hamad, a rebel fighter known as Abu Sakkar and commander of the Omar al-Faruq brigade in Homs, Syria, holding the heart (L) and the liver (R) of a Syrian government soldier after cutting it out from his dead body. AFP[/caption] In May 2013, Abu Sakkar appeared in a video showing him eating the heart of a dead regime soldier, sparking an international outcry and condemnation from the mainstream Syrian opposition. At the time, he was fighting in a rebel brigade in central Homs province. “He was likely killed in a settling of accounts” between Al-Nusra, which dominates much of Idlib province, and other Islamist rebels in the area, Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman said. The Syrian conflict began as a peaceful uprising against President Bashar al-Assad in March 2011 but swiftly escalated into an armed rebellion after his regime unleashed a brutal crackdown. Many Syrians became radicalised, and human rights groups have accused all sides in the fighting of committing atrocities.