Russia in Syria: Assad loyalists paraded in cages through Damascus by rebels trying to stop air strikes

Syrian rebels have put hundreds of Assad loyalists in cages in a besieged Damascus suburb and are believed to be using them as propaganda to end the air strikes.

Local activists have said that as many as 400 men and women from President Bashar al-Assad's Alawite kin have been put in cages by members of the Army of Islam rebel group.

The militants, one of the most powerful rebel factions operating in the Douma suburb of Damascus, have been videoed driving at least 100 cages around residential areas on pick-up trucks to pressure the government to call off Russian airstrikes, according to the anti-government Shaam news agency.

Air strikes have routinely targeted Douma and other neighbourhoods in the Eastern Ghouta region of the country while rebel groups have retaliated by sending rockets in government controlled areas of the city.

One man speaking in the video identified himself as Alawite colonel Riyad Nawwaf Hadad and said he had been imprisoned for three years.

A woman said had been imprisoned for two years and wanted airstrikes to end: “We wish that the Russian warplanes never shell civilians again.

“We are experiencing fear here with the people."

Source: independent.com