“We will do worse than this if we don’t get help and no-fly-zone and heavy weapons,” said Khalid al Hamad, known by his nom de guerre Abu Sakkar, in an exclusive interview with the British state-run broadcaster, the BBC.
“I didn’t want to do this but I was forced to. We should scare them and humiliate them just as they are doing to us ... I did this so they will be deterred. Now, they will not dare be wherever Abu Sakkar is,” he pointed out.
A footage posted online on May 12, showed Abu Sakkar, a founder of the Takfiri Farouq Brigade, knife in hand slicing parts of a dead soldier's torso before turning to the camera and putting the organ in his mouth.
At the time of the filming, al Hamad reportedly believed that he was eating the man’s liver, but a surgeon who saw the video said the organ in question was actually a lung.
The video, one of the most gruesome to emerge from the Syrian unrest, has sparked a flood of Facebook “shares” and YouTube views.
In April, two Time reporters saw the video and a few weeks later obtained a copy of it. Witnesses to the filming told Time that the video was authentic, but the magazine’s journalists initially did not release the video, believing it could have been faked for propaganda purposes, then attempted to authenticate it, and only publicized it after al Hamad confirmed that the video was real.
Human Rights Watch, which validated the video, issued a report on May 13 in which it called on the United Nations Security Council to refer the Syria situation to the International Criminal Court to ensure accountability for all war crimes and crimes against humanity.
“It is not enough for Syria’s opposition to condemn such behavior or blame it on violence by the government,” said Nadim Houry, HRW’s Deputy Middle East Director. “The opposition forces need to act firmly to stop such abuses.”
“I have another video clip that I will send to them. In the clip I am sawing another Shabiha [pro-government militiaman] with a saw. The saw we use to cut trees. I sawed him in small pieces and large ones,” al Hamad said in his earlier interview with Time.
The Syria crisis began in March 2011, and many people, including large numbers of soldiers and security personnel, have been killed in the violence.