The gruesome images and horrifying accounts that keep coming from Syria defy linguistic description.
They go beyond the pale of human decency.
A few weeks ago,
Hamza al Khatib,
a vivacious and charming boy from Dira’a was abducted from his home by the regime’s Shabbiha thugs or death squads,
for allegedly taking part in an anti-regime demonstration.
A few days later, his body, riddled with bullets,
and bearing indescribable scars of torture of all kinds,
was handed over to his family.
According to eyewitnesses and human rights operatives who examined the body,
the agents of the regime also severed the boy’s sexual organ before turning in the body for burial.
Arab intellectual and current-affairs commentator Azmi Bishara remarked on the incident,
saying that only human animals were capable of committing such a crime.