New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) has accused Syrian rebels of killing at least 190 civilians and taking more than 200 as hostages during a brutal attack in Latakia province in August.
HRW said the militant groups, some of them linked to al-Qaida, executed several civilians and then moved into 10 villages nearby where members of President Bashar al-Assad's 'Alawite' sect lived.
HRW identified five rebel groups instrumental to funding, organising, planning and carrying out the Latakia attacks, including the al-Qaida-linked Jabhat al-Nusra and Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant groups, as well as the Islamist group Ahrar al-Sham and another unit of foreign jihadi fighters, the Guardian reports.
This claim has come as the first evidence of crimes against humanity by opposition forces, the report added.
According to the HRW report 'You Can Still See Their Blood,' the militants had even gunned down entire families as they fled the villages.
HRW also claimed that the operation was financed by private Gulf-based donors.