Syrian rebels destroy Shi’ite site, loot churches: HRW

Alexander Dziadosz | Reuters – 25/1/13 BEIRUT (Reuters) – Rebels in Syria have burned and looted the religious sites of minorities, Human Rights Watch said on Wednesday, as the longest and deadliest of the Arab Spring revolts becomes increasingly sectarian. The 22-month-old rebellion against President Bashar al-Assad started as a peaceful protest movement but has turned into civil war, pitting mostly Sunni Muslim rebels against a state security and military establishment dominated by Assad’s minority Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shi’ite Islam. In the northern Idlib province, where rebels have taken swathes of territory from government forces, the New York-based rights group said opposition fighters destroyed a Shi’ite “husseiniya” – a religious site devoted to Hussein, a martyr in Shi’ite tradition.