Pillay warns armed opposition groups in Syria

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay on Thursday warned armed opposition groups in Syria that executions and unlawful killings are in violation of international human rights and humanitarian law and may amount to war crimes. "In the past two weeks, we have received reports of a succession of mass executions of civilians and fighters who were no longer participating in hostilities in Aleppo, Idlib and Raqqa by hardline armed opposition groups in Syria, in particular by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS)," the High Commissioner said in a press release. "While exact numbers are difficult to verify, reliable eyewitness testimony that we have gathered suggests that many civilians and fighters in the custody of extremist armed opposition groups have been executed since the beginning of this year." Reports suggest that in the first week of January, numerous individuals were executed in Idlib by armed opposition groups. On January 6, in Aleppo, three individuals who had reportedly been held by ISIS at its base in Makhfar al-Saleheen were found dead, handcuffed, with bullet wounds in their heads. On January 8, in Aleppo, numerous bodies, again mostly handcuffed and blindfolded, were found in a Children's Hospital which had been used as a base by ISIS until it was forced to withdraw after a raid by other armed opposition groups. An eyewitness interviewed by the UN Human Rights Office identified at least four local media activists among the dead, as well as captured fighters affiliated with various armed opposition groups. "Information from Raqqa has been more difficult to verify, but there are deeply disturbing reports emerging of mass executions by ISIS when the group withdrew from Raqqa at the beginning of this month, and when it regained control earlier this week," Pillay said. Pillay reminded all parties to the conflict that international law prohibits violence to life and person, in particular murder of all kinds, mutilation, cruel treatment, and torture at any time and under all circumstances.