[Debate] Hamas Condemns "'the Ugly Killing of 17 PLA Soldiers' by Suspected Rebels in Syria"

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

<http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/hamas-slams-killing-palestinian-troops-syria>
Hamas slams killing of Palestinian troops in Syria

A handout image from SANA of 17 unarmed Palestinian soldiers in Syria
killed by suspected rebels on 11 July 2012. (Photo: Al-Akhbar -
Handout - SANA)

Published Friday, July 13, 2012

The Palestinian Islamist group Hamas issued a strongly worded
statement on Thursday condemning "the ugly killing of 17 PLA soldiers"
by suspected rebels in Syria.

The head of the Palestine Liberation Army (PLA) in Syria condemned on
Thursday the kidnapping and killing of 17 of his troops by "armed
terrorist groups," state news agency SANA reported.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported on
Wednesday that the bodies of 13 PLA soldiers had been found after they
were kidnapped days earlier while en route to Aleppo in northern
Syria.

The PLA is a battalion in the Syrian army, although it is made up of
Palestinians living in Syria and who are conscripted to the armed
forces.

PLA chief of staff Major General Mohammad Tareq al-Khadraa told SANA:
"The fact that the armed terrorist groups kidnapped and killed 17
troops from the Palestinian Liberation Army in Syria proves the
criminal, dirty role that these groups play and their links to Western
and Zionist agendas."

He added that the men were "tortured and abused," that "they were
unarmed, and that they were on their way to visit their families on
holiday."

Images of the massacre show messages scrawled on the bodies of the
Palestinian men, reportedly left by armed opposition fighters.

It is unclear why the armed militiamen attacked the Palestinians, who
have largely kept out of the Syrian uprising since it began in March
2011.

Khadraa called the men martyrs who "gave their lives in an offering to
the liberation of Palestine."

It called the killings "a racist, cowardly act that targets the
presence of Palestinians in Syria as guests who do not interfere in
internal issues."

Hamas had its political headquarters in Damascus until the uprising
began, when it sought to move its operations elsewhere due to the
deteriorating security situation.

Roughly 470,000 Palestinian refugees live in Syria.

(AFP, Al-Akhbar)
-- 
Yoshie Furuhashi
<http://mrzine.org/>