Member of the political committee Ahmed Tinawi states that the Syrian people, who are the most affected by terrorism, are the only side eligible to designate groups whether they are extremist or not. He stresses that participants in the upcoming Vienna meeting must consult Syrians if they want to know who the arch-terrorists are in Syria.
Tinawi said that the Syrian people have been afflicted by the scourge of terrorism since their protests against the regime in 2011, met with brutal crackdown and then fought by Hezbollah militias and others from Iran and Afghanistan.
Member of the Syrian Coalition Youssef Mahalli said that the most notorious terrorist militant groups in Syria are the National Defense Forces (NDF) aka shabiha, the Hezbollah militia, Fatimiyoun Brigade, Abu Fadl al Abbas Brigade and the rest of sectarian militias trained and funded by the Iranian regime.
Mahalli calls on participants in the upcoming Vienna meeting to place these groups on the terrorism list along with ISIS and Al-Qaeda if they are serious about rooting out extremism from the region.
Human rights groups have issued several reports documenting massacres and crimes committed by the militias fighting alongside the Assad regime that claimed the lives of about 2,000 Syrian citizens.
The Syrian Network for Human Rights confirmed it has documented over 10 major massacres committed by these militias and by regime forces in which at least 1,005 people were killed, including 172 children and 142 women.
The biggest of these massacres occurred in the district of Deir Baalbah in Homs in April 2012, the village of Malkiya in rural Aleppo in February, 2013 the village of Tal Shughayb east of Aleppo in March 2013, the village of Adnaniyah in Aleppo province in March 2013, the village of Um Amoud in Aleppo province in April 2013, the village of Rasm al-Nafl in Aleppo province in June 2013, and the village of Al-Mazra’a in Aleppo province in June 2013, the village of Thiabiya in rural Damascus in October 2013, the town of Al-Nabek in rural Damascus in December 2013, and the village of Khanasser in Aleppo province in February 2014. (Source: Syrian Coalition)
