Turkish and multiple Western media are reporting that the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) is reporting that the bodies of 65 or more men (reportedly some of them are teenagers) have been found by Syrian rebel forces on the banks of the Quwaiq river in the Bustan al-Qasr district of Aleppo.
The Bustan al-Qasr district is controlled by rebel forces. The rebels who reportedly filmed the bodies were not rushed and seemed to be unworried about being shot at by government forces.
The men seem to have been shot in the head recently and many of them have their hands tied.
The Syrian opposition and the Syrian government are accusing each other of executing these men.
The Syrian government claims that the men had been kidnapped and then executed by rebel forces, and that the rebels were now trying to use their bodies for propaganda purposes.
Syrian rebels claim that the men were shot by government forces in government controlled areas north of the Bustan al-Qasr district and that their bodies were then thrown into the river and floated downstream to be found in the Bustan al-Qasr district.
I can only say that one thing raises a very large question mark in my mind.
The Quwaiq river is more of a stream. It is a little more than two meters (two yards) wide, very shallow, very muddy, and flows quite slowly.
I don't know whether bodies weighed down by thick waterlogged clothes would be able to be carried downstream by this river.
Links:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/...
http://abcnews.go.com/...
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/...
http://news.yahoo.com/...
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/...
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Update to my post yesterday on the situation in Ceylanpınar, Turkey
Twelve Days of Fear and Apprehension in a Turkish Border Town
Today four more rocket propelled grenades landed in Ceylanpınar, but again fortunately they did not explode.
They hit right next to a park in Ceylanpınar which is on the Turkish-Syrian border and in which I have sat many times.
There is a growing belief that Ceylanpınar is being deliberately targeted by rebel forces in Ras al-Ayn in an attempt to pull the Turkish military into the fighting as more eyewitnesses are coming forward and stating that they have observed these forces firing directly at Ceylanpınar.
There are also reports that at least 10 rebel fighters were wounded in fighting today in Ras al-Ayn and that today Kurdish forces forced rebel forces out of, and took control of, several areas in Ras al-Ayn.
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