Syrian rebels 'execute' militia

Pictures of the apparent massacre, captured by someone using a mobile phone, came as President Bashar al-Assad said the current battle in Aleppo, Syria's second-largest city, would be decisive.

"The army is engaged in a crucial and heroic battle on which the destiny of the nation and its people rests," Mr Assad said.

"The enemy is among us today, using agents to destabilise the country, the security of its citizens, and continues to exhaust our economic and scientific resources."

While the regime was trying to fend off a rebel push into Aleppo, new fighting broke out last night in the capital, Damascus.

The government had secured Damascus after rebels stormed it two weeks ago but last night the rebels again engaged government soldiers in some suburbs.

It appears those caught on

the video being executed were members of the Shabiha, the plain-clothed militia who have been working with government soldiers.

The shocking video appears to have been filmed this week during the battle for Aleppo.

Until now, the Assad regime has been accused of several massacres of civilians belonging to the Sunni majority.

UN investigators believe that in May, Shabiha - from the Alawite minority that rules the country - killed 108 people in Houla, including 49 children.

Investigators who attended the scene said the bodies they examined indicated that many of the children were shot at point-blank range or had their throats cut.

If it is confirmed that the rebels have engaged in cold-blooded executions, it will create problems for those countries that are supporting them, including Britain, France, Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

The video shows several men - who appear to have been beaten, as they have blood on them - being forced by a mob to sit against a wall. The mob then opens fire.

Someone tries to cover the lens of the person filming.

After about 30 seconds of shooting, bodies are shown lying on the ground.

Meanwhile, fighting continued yesterday around Aleppo with neither side appearing to make any decisive progress.

The rebels are targeting government installations in Aleppo. They took three police stations, during which they say they killed 40 policemen.

US television network NBC reported that the rebels had obtained 24 surface-to-air missiles, delivered through Turkey.

The New York Times recently reported that CIA agents were working along the Turkey-Syria border trying to make sure that weapons were delivered to the Free Syrian Army rather than al-Qa'ida.

The split in the Syrian opposition widened yesterday with the creation of a new body, the Council for the Syrian Revolution, based in Egypt. The head of the new group, Haitham al-Maleh, said: "This ruling gang will soon fall, God willing, and we do not want to find the country in a state of administrative vacuum."

Mr Maleh, a conservative Muslim, said he had been named by a Syrian coalition of "independents with no political affiliation".

"I have been tasked with leading a transitional government," said the 81-year-old rights activist who has been jailed twice under the Assad regime. He would begin consultations "with the opposition inside and outside" Syria.

But the main opposition group, the Turkish-based Syrian National Council, said the new group did not help the opposition.

SNC chief Abdel Basset Sayda said it was a "hasty decision".

"We wish it had not happened," Mr Sayda told journalists. "It actually weakens the opposition."

The Free Syrian Army also condemned the new group, describing it as "opportunistic".

Turkey's Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, yesterday repeated his prediction that Assad would fall.

"God willing, the brotherly Syrian people and the Middle East will soon be freed from this dictator with blood on his hands and his regime, which was built on blood," Mr Erdogan said in a televised address.

"Assad and his bloodstained comrades know well that they have reached the end and that their fates will not be different from those of previous dictators."

Additional reporting: agencies