Were Syrian Rebels Responsible For Houla Massacre?

Report: Rebels Responsible For Houla Massacre -- NRO

It was, in the words of U.N. special envoy Kofi Annan, the “tipping point” in the Syria conflict: a savage massacre of over 90 people, predominantly women and children, for which the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad was immediately blamed by virtually the entirety of the Western media. Within days of the first reports of the Houla massacre, the U.S., France, Great Britain, Germany, and several other Western countries announced that they were expelling Syria’s ambassadors in protest.

But according to a new report in Germany’s leading daily, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ), the Houla massacre was in fact committed by anti-Assad Sunni militants, and the bulk of the victims were member of the Alawi and Shia minorities, which have been largely supportive of Assad. For its account of the massacre, the report cites opponents of Assad, who, however, declined to have their names appear in print out of fear of reprisals from armed opposition groups.

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My Comment: One of my regular commentators remarked last week (on the Houla massacre story) that the identity of those who were massacred raises questions on who actually did it. He has a valid point. In the fog of war anything is possible, and while I am usual focusing on the brutality of Assad's military (because they are the worse), the rebels (as this report reveals) are not angels either.