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| UN blacklists Syria's al-Nusra Front |
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 The UN Security Council has blacklisted al-Nusra Front as an alias of al-Qaeda in Iraq, a decision that will subject the group to sanctions including an arms embargo, travel ban and assets freeze, diplomats said.
Al-Nusra is fighting, along with many other foreign-backed groups, in Syria to destabilize the Arab country.
The U.S. mission to the United Nations said none of the 15 council members objected to adding al-Nusra as an alias of al-Qaeda in Iraq on Thursday.
The U.S. State Department designated al-Nusra as a terrorist organization in December 2012.
Experts have long said al-Nusra is receiving support from al-Qaeda-linked fighters in neighboring Iraq.
The group claimed responsibility for deadly bombings in Damascus and Aleppo, and its fighters have joined other Syrian rebel brigades.
Syria had initially asked for al-Nusra to be designated a new terrorist group, but Britain and France countered with a proposal to instead list it as an alias of al-Qaeda because there were concerns about the Syrian evidence supporting its request, said diplomats, speaking on the condition of anonymity.
"There was quite a lot of suggestions that the information they got was from interrogation, which means torture in Syria," said a senior diplomat.
Either way the group was listed, it would still have been subjected to the same sanctions.
Videos of executions and torture have become increasingly common in Syria.
In May, a foreign-backed militant was seen eating an organ of a dead Syrian soldier in a video confirmed the authenticity of the 27-second clip.
In an interview with Time magazine conducted via Skype on May 14, Khalid al Hamad, known by his nom de guerre Abu Sakkar, confirmed that the video is real and that he did indeed take a bite of the soldier’s lung.
The video shows him cutting out some of the soldier's organs and biting into one. At the time of the filming, al Hamad believed that he was eating the man’s liver, but a surgeon who saw the video said the organ in question was actually a lung.
Other Syrian militants condemned the "horrific and inhumane" action and said he should be arrested or killed for committing the atrocity.
Human Rights Watch said it was a war crime.
Human Rights Watch, which validated the video, issued a report in which it called on the United Nations Security Council to refer the Syria situation to the International Criminal Court to ensure accountability for all war crimes and crimes against humanity.
“It is not enough for Syria’s opposition to condemn such behavior or blame it on violence by the government,” said Nadim Houry, HRW’s Deputy Middle East Director. “The opposition forces need to act firmly to stop such abuses.”
The Syria crisis began in March 2011, and many people, including large numbers of soldiers and security personnel, have been killed in the violence.
The Syrian government says that the chaos is being orchestrated from outside the country, and there are reports that a very large number of the militants are foreign nationals.
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