Although it is neither the bloodiest nor the most monstrous among the videos being leaked by the Syrian regime's apparatuses, the clip showing soldiers loyal to Bashar al-Assad killing unarmed civilians was spread broadly and provoked uproar for justified reasons. Before tackling the causes behind this spread and the intentional leak, we ought to talk about the protagonists of the clip circulated by websites a few days ago: Firstly, there are "the victims." The soldiers gather six or seven youth inside what appears to be the rubble of a building that was bombarded. They take away four or five of them for some reason and keep only two, cursing at them and accusing them of being part of the "(Adnan) Al-Ar'our group." We also see a man whom we will call "the thug," wearing dark glasses, a beard and a baseball hat. The man seems to summarize the culture of segregation between the Syrians with his excessive self-confidence, an accent that is specific to the coast, disproportionate violence towards the victims, and clear indifference vis-à-vis their stabbing and beating with spikes and stones. The second and less important protagonist is the "soldier," wearing his helmet and participating – almost without any interest – in the slashing of the victims and their beating on the head with rocks, as if it were one of the duties of a soldier in the doctrinal army. As for the third protagonist, i.e. Ahmad or Abu Hmeid, he is probably of a lower rank or from a lower and more humble social background. Abu Hmeid goes the extra mile in his stabbing and cursing, and carries the largest rocks to throw at the corpses which lay dead on the ground. This soldier, who is wearing a hat similar to that of a fisherman, would cry if he is ever captured by his enemies, swearing to them he was supporting a family of many children and could not afford medicine for his mother. He is the idiot of the bunch, who is assigned to do the dirty job and perform the most difficult tasks for its members, and is the one who will provoke protests in case he is executed by an extremist group such as the Al-Nusra Front with a bullet in the head following his capture. The fourth provoked controversy, after voices rose saying that he belonged to the Sunni Al-Barri family from Aleppo, whose members were taken down by the Free Army following their arrest inside the city. It is worth mentioning at this level that the latter had subjected the population to the worst kinds of humiliation during the terms of Hafiz and Bashar al-Assad. However, many activists cast doubts over the identity of the man, attributing his recognition to the work of the regime apparatuses, which distributed the tape to fuel the confusion surrounding the circumstances of the crime and place it in a political context exceeding sectarian divide – knowing that the soldiers' accents clearly revealed the area from which they came, and which hosts a Alawite majority. The fifth protagonist was the photographer, who was apparently not alone as revealed by the soldiers who welcomed him by saying "welcome guys!" He carried out the most difficult task, as he covered the crime along with the voices of its perpetrators, and maybe even posting the video online in the form of a leak by the thugs. As for the two last protagonists, they are the victims who – after a short conversation with the thug in the first tape – received the stabbing and beating with remarkable calm, while rarely screaming or moaning. They did not rebel, did not try to escape and did not put up a fight, although the hands of one of them appeared untied as he talked to the soldier. They did not kick the murderers, but rather surrendered, as it is befitting of the people to surrender to the murderers and befitting of the crowds to succumb to the envoys and real representatives of the immortal leader. The fastest conclusion is that the video was posted on purpose to raise the psychological barrier between the Syrian factions, and cause retaliatory massacres which would allow the regime to seek help to defend the threatened minorities. In the meantime, the regime is claiming it has made up its mind and is proceeding until its fall, thus throwing the sectarian fireball in the hands of its oppositionists.
