Syrian rebels who overthrew the dictatorship of Bashar al-Assad on Sunday are reportedly executing their opponents, imposing Islamic sharia law, and threatening non-Muslim minorities, including the Kurdish population in the north.
Videos are circulating on social media showing Syrian rebels killing people associated with the regime — some of whom may have been part of the state security services, and others who appear to have been ordinary employees.
The New York Times reported Tuesday:
Islamic State forces on Tuesday killed 54 people in the Homs region in central Syria who had been part of the Syrian government’s military and fled during the collapse of the Assad regime, according to the Syrian Observatory of Human Rights, a British-based monitoring group. The killings highlight the chaos in Syria as various rebel factions operate in different regions.
One video also shows thousands of smashed bottles of liquor at the duty free store of the Damascus airport, where Islamist rebels apparently enforced the Islamic ban on alcohol by force, as Islamists did in Lebanon in the 1980s.
In addition, Islamist rebels, backed by Turkey, have been threatening Kurdish communities, backed by the U.S.
The Times reported that the Syrian rebels are fighting with Kurdish militias:
Fierce fighting was underway on Tuesday between rebels supported by Turkey and U.S.-backed, Kurdish-led forces near Kobani, a town in northern Syria with historic and symbolic significance for American involvement in the region.
The fight illustrates how, even as rebels try to build a government after taking Damascus, armed groups with competing interests are still fighting for territory and power, trying to fill the vacuum left by a collapsed regime and, in this case, pitting proxies of the United States and Turkey against each other.
U.S. Central Command commanding officer General Erik Kurilla actually visited Syria on Tuesday, reviewing the current state of preparations among U.S. troops and the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
Meanwhile, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) conducted hundreds of airstrikes on Syrian army positions and arms stockpiles, destroying what was left of the military Assad abandoned, preventing it from falling into rebel hands.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days, available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
