" The top United Nations human rights official warned opposition fighters in Syria
on Monday that they would not be immune from prosecution for
atrocities, as videos from the Syrian city of Aleppo appeared to show a
mass execution by rebel fighters of bound and blindfolded Syrian
government soldiers. One of the videos,
first publicized on Monday on the Brown Moses blog, which curates and
analyzes video evidence from Syria, showed at least 20 corpses lying in a
crooked row on a bloodstained street curb. The victims wore fatigues
but no shoes. Several appeared to have been shot in the head. In that video and another that captured the same scene, different rebel
groups appear to take responsibility for the killings. It was impossible
to immediately confirm the authenticity of the videos, or to determine
exactly when and where they were recorded. If confirmed, the executions
were likely to add to growing concerns about the conduct of the militias
fighting to topple the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, and
particularly their treatment of prisoners. In a brutal episode in late July, a group of rebel fighters was seen in a
video executing several captives — members of an Aleppo family accused
of being enforcers for the government — with a spray of gunfire. In
recent days, other videos have captured summary executions by the
rebels. Speaking in Geneva on Monday, Navi Pillay, the United Nations high
commissioner for human rights, warned of atrocities by both the
government and its opponents. Both, she said, “deploy snipers that
target civilians.” Ms. Pillay also said the Syrian government’s attacks
on civilians and destruction of homes “may constitute war crimes or
crimes against humanity,” according to a transcript of Ms. Pillay’s remarks on her office’s Web site."