World

13-Year-Old Syrian Boy Allegedly Tortured for Anti-Gov’t Protest

If the revolt in Tunisia was sparked by a helpless fruit-cart owner suffering injustice, you can bet that the story of 13-year-old Hamza Ali al-Khateeb could do the same in Syria. That’s because his story is allegedly one of helpless torture. And there is video that shows the aftermath.

[Warning: This story contains graphic content.]

The Washington Post reports:

The boy’s head was swollen, purple and disfigured. His body was a mess of welts, cigarette burns and wounds from bullets fired to injure, not kill. His kneecaps had been smashed, his neck broken, his jaw shattered and his penis cut off.

What finally killed him was not clear, but it appeared painfully, shockingly clear that he had suffered terribly during the month he spent in Syrian custody.

Hamza Ali al-Khateeb was 13 years old.

And since a video portraying the torture inflicted upon him was broadcast on the al-Jazeera television network Friday, he has rapidly emerged as the new symbol of the protest movement in Syria. His childish features have put a face to the largely faceless and leaderless opposition to President Bashar al-Assad’s regime that has roiled the country for nine weeks, reinvigorating a movement that had seemed in danger of drifting.

It is too early to tell whether the boy’s death will trigger the kind of critical mass that brought down the regimes in Egypt and Tunisia earlier this year and that the Syrian protests have lacked. But it would not be the first time that the suffering of an individual had motivated ordinary people who might not otherwise have taken to the streets to rise against their governments.

“This boy is already a symbol,” Wissam Tarif, of the human rights monitoring group Insan, told the Post. “It has provoked people, and the protests are increasing.”

CNN’s John King has some images from the graphic video:

You can see a 23-second version of the video here, as it is too graphic to post.

Comments (50)

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  • joelack55
    Posted on May 31, 2011 at 11:28am

    So AMERICA………………..WHAT are we going to DO? WHEN?

    Report Post » joelack55  
  • NOBALONEY
    Posted on May 31, 2011 at 10:58am

    Aren’t Obamas speeches and sanctions stopping the Syrian government? Assad is no better than Quddafi or Mubarak, except for the Russians warning the west not to interfere. That makes the recent G 8 meeting a farce.

    Report Post » NOBALONEY  
  • Akbarjonnie Shaheed
    Posted on May 31, 2011 at 10:26am

    Coming to a city near you. This is your child, your brother, your grandson. It’s your last chance.

    Report Post »  
  • thejackal
    Posted on May 31, 2011 at 10:07am

    The entire culture that allowed this to happen needs to be vaporized. I can understand torturing an enemy that has knowledge of a coming attack ect., but torturing a little kid FOR WHAT accept to feed some perverts twisted whims. Wipe them all out and let God sort ‘em out, I don‘t think they’d be too many keepers. Bunch of backward evil, twisted, pervs!

    Report Post » thejackal  
  • a true texan
    Posted on May 31, 2011 at 9:52am

    What’s up with that hospital in the video? Our hospitals in the 1920′s were better equipped than those were. The middle east are some of the richest countries in the world and the peace loving government can;t equip a hospital any better than that…they must have already instituted Obama Care!

    Report Post »  
  • a true texan
    Posted on May 31, 2011 at 9:48am

    I agree let them fight it out. When we invaded Irag/Afghan I was happy because I wanted to help those poor people live a free life. Unfortunately, it took me a few years to wake up. You can not change generations of hatred. They will NEVER change they will always be led by these types of rulers because their religion is pure evil. The middle east is the den of Satan. Let them fight out themselves and BRING OUR SOLDIERS AND OUR MONEY HOME, NOW!

    Report Post »  
  • a true texan
    Posted on May 31, 2011 at 9:44am

    The Syrian Govmt has blamed outside forces and terrorist for the upheaval…would that be the Obama Admin along w/Facebook?

    Report Post »  
  • TopOfTheMuffin2u
    Posted on May 31, 2011 at 9:20am

    so sad.

    Report Post »  
  • timej31
    Posted on May 31, 2011 at 8:56am

    Progressives will do it. They love eugenics. They did it before and they are and always will be the same. Murderers.

    Report Post » timej31  
  • bent_wrench
    Posted on May 31, 2011 at 8:55am

    We have no business going into Syria for any reason, they are not our friend and are a threat to our best friend in the region. Stand with Isreal. The only happy and secure arabs in the middle east are citizens of Isreal. Isreal dosen’t need us, we need them.

    Report Post »  
  • nacilbuper
    Posted on May 31, 2011 at 8:23am

    Barry?

    Report Post » nacilbuper  
  • MUDFLAPS
    Posted on May 31, 2011 at 8:23am

    There has to be a place worse than hell for these people. There has to be.

    Report Post »  
  • LastAmerican
    Posted on May 31, 2011 at 8:23am

    I just don’t even know what to say. Just sick. And everyone is upset with Israel. Right.

    Report Post »  
  • A1955Rosie
    Posted on May 31, 2011 at 8:20am

    I posted on FB along with a message to American mothers. This happens because they have become to busy doing games, watching jersylicious, or doing whatever they do instead of being their brothers keeper.

    Report Post » A1955Rosie  
  • ares338
    Posted on May 31, 2011 at 8:14am

    Even in death, this boy was used for political purposes.

    Report Post » ares338  
  • BelindaB
    Posted on May 31, 2011 at 8:12am

    Those responsible are dirty, filthy, bastards.

    Report Post »  
  • LadyIzShy
    Posted on May 31, 2011 at 8:11am

    religion of peace love and tollerence.. hmmmm really these stories are no surprise.. I know we cant ignore them but i get sick of reading them.. I KNOW Muslins in the middle east are like this

    Report Post » LadyIzShy  
  • psst
    Posted on May 31, 2011 at 8:08am

    Assad Must go.. And NATO warplanes will keep attacking his compound until he leaves.
    This is what a spokesman for Soetoro’s regime said.
    Soetoro told the NYT in an interview that he will personally go to Syria and kick out Assad.
    The NYT ballyhooed Soetoro’s bravery.

    Report Post »  
  • teddrunk
    Posted on May 31, 2011 at 8:00am

    These animals stone 13 year old little girl rape victims, so this isn’t a surprise.

    Report Post »  
    • psst
      Posted on May 31, 2011 at 8:23am

      Just saw the news on Fox where a beautiful young Moslem girl was found stoned to death in the Ukraine.
      Her crime, um aaah, she had the Audacity to enter a beauty pagent.
      Many of US think that the crazies who follows this crazy Religion Of Peace, founded by a child pervert consists of only folks of swarthy complexion..
      European Moslems are just as crazy and barbaric as their desert cousins.

      Report Post »  
    • teddrunk
      Posted on May 31, 2011 at 10:42am

      Exactly, it doesn’t seem to matter the race/skin color, or country of origin, these animals are nuts.

      Report Post »  
  • Rob
    Posted on May 31, 2011 at 7:57am

    Our own nation is going to hell and The Blaze stresses about other nations…. OUR NATION IS GOING TO HELL!

    Report Post »  
    • psst
      Posted on May 31, 2011 at 8:18am

      Um! This could come to a town in which your grown grandchildren lives. I used the word “Grown” because you may not be around by then. I think this is about 30 yrs away if we don’t change this country, and quickly..
      I am not wishing for your quick demise. You could possibly be in your 30′s.and live to see it.
      I know I will not be around myself. Mortality ya know.

      Report Post »  
  • thecrow
    Posted on May 31, 2011 at 7:57am

    http://michaelfury.wordpress.com/2010/05/26/come-to-me-my-child/

    Report Post »  
  • nacilbuper
    Posted on May 31, 2011 at 7:32am

    Coming to a town near you in America…

    Report Post » nacilbuper  
  • GODSAMERICA
    Posted on May 31, 2011 at 7:27am

    This is HORRENDOUS! I feel like obama has a new hero in the syrian government.

    Report Post » GODSAMERICA  
    • Robert-CA
      Posted on May 31, 2011 at 11:45am

      Obama gave him the boost when he send to Damascus a new US ambassador .

      Report Post » Robert-CA  
  • tower7femacamp
    Posted on May 31, 2011 at 7:18am

    torture is Satanic no matter who is doing it and
    no matter what the cause torture is NEVER justified
    not even water boarding by the US

    Report Post » tower7femacamp  
  • tower7femacamp
    Posted on May 31, 2011 at 7:15am

    Statism is the common thread that links all totalitarian regimes. Most living souls do not believe that the Soviet, Lenin and Stalin gulag, is possible today. A diluted revulsion level of atrocities is characteristic of the media script of current events. Disconnect between what really happens and what is reported is so dramatic that reality is unknown to most people.

    The term NeoCon, commonly used as a synonym for neoconservative begs the real issue. There is nothing conservative about a top down authoritarian central government. Originally, refugees from the liberal Marxist strain, the former Bush NeoCon cronies applied their perverted viewpoint to discredit the meaning of real conservatism. Now you have the Obama LibCons outdoing their statist cousins to advance the War Party outreach intervention, well beyond Iraq and Afghanistan.

    Playing the political party label game never alters the fundamental foreign policy designed to use American youth as cannon fodder for the actual masters of the global hegemony. Under Obama and slated with designed regime change, were the countries of Tunisia, Egypt and Libya. Pakistan and Syria are next. Even the stern warning from China not to intervene or violate the sovereignty of Pakistan goes unheard. The march toward a Middle East conflagration rests upon a predictable attack on Iran. This is the obvious war plan. However, the evil empire has limits that superior targeting technology cannot predict a final outcome.
    http://www.infow

    Report Post » tower7femacamp  
    • Thatsitivehadenough
      Posted on May 31, 2011 at 7:36am

      Sorry…I didn’t watch most of this video. It occurred to me that there is absolutely nothing new in Muslims using children as martyrs. Call me a cynic, but these children were deliberately used to cause anger to involve people who care to get dragged into the war between the Muslim tribes.

      Don’t do it. Let them fight it out among themselves. No one can save all the children in Islam as long as Muslims themselves allow this to happen. Syria needs to fix itself.

      Sorry if you don’t like it, but that’s what I think.

      Report Post » Thatsitivehadenough  
    • biohazard23
      Posted on May 31, 2011 at 8:52am

      @Thatsitivehadenough,

      I agree. Let the heathens sort themselves out. Children to them are like women: commodities to be used and exploited. And the Left will STILL support and defend these bottom feeders.

      BTW, where the hell are those Code Oink wackos to say that these children need to be saved? Oh, that’s right. This child wasn’t attacked by those evil Israelis. In their opinion it’s, “Nothing to see here, folks, keep moving.” Idiots.

      Report Post » biohazard23  
    • Anonymous T. Irrelevant
      Posted on May 31, 2011 at 8:53am

      And WE are giving them 20 Billion? That’s just so wrong in so many ways.

      Report Post » Anonymous T. Irrelevant  
    • Anonymous T. Irrelevant
      Posted on May 31, 2011 at 9:05am

      After those first two images, I had to stop it. Muslims just treat non-Muslims as fleshbags, and the way they treat their own women and children, is disgusting. This is the channel that the Obama Regime wants you to watch, Al-Jazeera, who show stuff like this.

      Report Post » Anonymous T. Irrelevant  
    • BJColter Country Music Iconoclast
      Posted on May 31, 2011 at 9:40am

      I wouldn’t put it past the “revolutionaries” to have murdered this young boy and blamed the government. Remember Janin. Mohammed says it’s okay to lie, kill, etc. Don’t fall into this crapola, it’s all just part of the Obama plan for WORLD DOMINATION. Here’s a song I wrote about it.

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqdufoUASMc

      Report Post » BJColter Country Music Iconoclast  
    • William
      Posted on May 31, 2011 at 11:26am

      Those people are just plain EVIL. There god is the Devil. We know it just by watching their actions. There is no peace and Love in their hearts. Allah=satan

      Report Post »  
    • American Soldier (Separated)
      Posted on May 31, 2011 at 2:01pm

      I guess he forgot to apply for the proper permits and do it in a free speech zone.

      Report Post » American Soldier (Separated)  
    • SpeckChaser
      Posted on May 31, 2011 at 6:05pm

      @ JZS/ENCINOM

      Please condemn these vile, disgusting, racist, bible-toting, right wingers who carried out this heinous act.

      Report Post » SpeckChaser  
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