This week, an execution video appeared on YouTube from a rebel brigade in Aleppo bearing eery similarity to those that have come to define Daesh (ISIS) antics in the conflict. Only this video had a twist at the end.
Daesh has become infamous for the slickly produced execution videos its disseminated across social media over the last year. But this week, a rebel brigade in Aleppo released a new video on YouTube that was almost identical to those of Daesh except for one important detail—the end.
The group behind the video is the Al Shamiya Front, a rebel brigade operating in Aleppo under a wide net of Free Syrian Army factions with terrority around the eastern city, and it focuses on some 10 Daesh militants Al Shamiya claims to have captured.
It starts out almost identically to videos from Daesh—prisoners are interviewed about what they were doing before being captured. Their names, roles and ages flash across the screen in Arabic and English. One is only 15.
After a few of them speak, you see a row of ten captives clad in orange jumpsuits and handcuffed together. Behind them, ten FSA fighters in cameo and facemasks lead them by the shoulders, grabbing handguns from a table as they go.
Playing out in the same, souped-up production as Daesh videos, the catives are lined up, kneeling before the militants. But just as you think they're preparing to be shot, words scroll across the screen in Arabic and English: "Muslims are not criminals."
The fighters draw back their guns and pull off their masks. Then the leader of the brigade comes out and speaks for several minutes in Arabic about the importance in Islam of treating prisoners well.
"We Muslims dont kill our prisoners and those who deserve to be executed will be executed in closed rooms away from media and cameras," the fighter says as images of Daesh atrocities flash across the screen.
The prisoners are untied and led away in the end of the video.
The video has yet to be verified, but after Trump's comments about Muslims this week, it's at least interesting to see comments about Daesh and Islam coming from different voices.
Here's the video, via YouTube.
