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| 14-year-old executed by Syrian rebels |
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 A teenager selling coffee in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo was arrested by foreign-backed rebels beaten and then executed in front of his family, a watchdog group claims.
According to NBC News, the boy, Mohammed Qatta, 14, reportedly refused to give a customer coffee, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported on Sunday.
"Even if [Prophet] Mohammed comes back to life, I won't," the boy said, who was known by his nickname "Salmo."
Militants driving past in a black car overheard the comment, the rebel Aleppo Media Center said. Qatta was taken away by the fighters and later brought back, his head wrapped with his shirt and his body covered with marks from whipping.
The rebels then read out the boy's sentence — not in a Syrian accent, but in classical Arabic. They accused the boy of blasphemy and told the crowd — which included the boy's parents — that anyone who insulted the Prophet would suffer a similar fate.
Qatta was then shot in the mouth and neck. A graphic photo was released late on Sunday of the dead boy clearly showing wounds that matched the reports.
The boy's parents confirmed the accounts in an interview posted online on Monday by the Aleppo Media Center. In it, his father stoically recounted the execution while his mother wailed.
"Why did they kill my son," she cried. "We are not for or against anybody in this conflict, may God take revenge on them."
The Syria crisis began in March 2011, and many people, including large numbers of government forces, have been killed.
Damascus says the chaos is being orchestrated from outside the country, and there are reports that a very large number of the militants are foreign nationals.
The Syrian government says the West and its regional allies, such as Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey, are supporting the militants.
In addition, several international human rights organizations say the militants operating in Syria have committed war crimes.
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