65 men, youths found executed in Aleppo

BEIRUT // Syrian activists say at least 65 bodies, some of them with their hands tied behind their back, have been found on a river bank in the northern city of Aleppo.

The head of the Britain-based Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdul-Rahman, says the bodies were discovered yesterday in the city's contested district of Al Bustan Al Qasr. All of the dead are men.

Mr Abdul-Rahman says it's not clear who was behind the killings, when they occurred or who the dead are.

The Local Coordination Committees activist group put the number of bodies found at 80.

In videos activists posted online, dozens of bodies are seen lying on the ground along a river, their hands bound behind their backs. Some appear to be bleeding from what could be gunshot wounds to the head.

The Queiq River rises in Turkey and travels through government-held districts of Aleppo before it reaches Bustan Al Qasr.

"They were killed only because they are Muslims," said a bearded man in another video said to have been filmed in the area after the bodies were removed from the river. A pickup truck with a pile of corpses was parked behind him.

Government forces and rebels in Syria have both been accused by human rights groups of carrying out summary executions in the 22-month-old conflict, which has claimed more than 60,000 lives.

In the eastern city of Deir Al Zor, insurgents including Al Qaeda-linked Islamist fighters captured a security agency after days of heavy fighting, according to an activist video issued yesterday.

The fighters freed prisoners from the building, it added.

Comment: Hassan Hassan, a14