Look at this passage: it has been used in Neir MacFarquhar's articles on the Hula massacre. Human Rights Watch could not even notice how offensive to `Alawites and Shi`ites this passage is: "All of the witnesses stated the armed men were pro-government, but they did not know whether they were members of the Syrian army or a pro-government militia, locally referred to as shabeeha. Houla’s towns, overwhelmingly Sunni, are surrounded by Alawite and Shia villages, and sectarian tensions have been high since last year."