Syrian Rebel Radicalization

"These elements do seem to contribute to a radicalization of some of the g roups that they've begun to work with inside.  The bigger bomb blasts, the pattern, the way they work it, is what we've seen elsewhere with these same kinds of groups."  
Karen AbuZayd, U.S. co-commissioner, UN human rights commission

 Syria's President Bashar al-Assad has done his father proud.  He has managed, through a concerted effort, to surpass his father's record in destroying the lives of Sunni Muslim Syrians in sheer numbers. Over a quarter-million Syrians have fled their country, in fear for their lives at the military command of the Syrian regime.  Internally displaced Syrians represent 1.2-million people.

United Nations investigators led by Paulo Pinheiro, a heading UN human rights investigator, claim to have gathered "a formidable and extraordinary body of evidence" of Syrian government forces conducting daily air strikes, shelling indiscrimately on civilian areas.  The United Nations now stands prepared to refer the continuing volatile situation to the International Criminal Court.

If they can manage to get by Syrian regime-shielding efforts by Russia and China, busy blocking Western efforts to condemn Syria, deflecting efforts to initiate proceedings at the UN war crimes court.  "Gross human rights violations have grown in number, in pace and in scale.  There is no statute of limitations on these crimes", he said presenting his team's latest report.

War crimes inclusive of murder and torture of civilians represented Syrian government orders carried out by the military and allied militias.  Furthermore, an "increasing and alarming presence of foreign elements, including Jihadist militants" were present in Syria, some among the rebel groups, others independent operators.  Their presence appeared to radicalize the rebels, all of whom have committed war crimes.

"The signal of their presence is basically the explosions, the attacks, that have been registered.  We consider that one of the most alarming and scary elements of this protracted war is the presence of those elements.  They are sort of loose cannons", he said.  The rebels had "used prisoners to detonate vehicle-borne explosives", in the process killing both their captives and the intended civilian victims.

Take your pick: malevolently brutal regime, or viciously brutal rebels and their jihadist cohorts.  The Syrian Christian population has selected the former, fear the latter.