'Rebels murdered my 14-year-old for a joke': Anguish of Syrian mother who saw her son being shot dead

Mohammed Katta was shot dead in broad daylight by Islamist fighters

Both his mother and father were nearby to witness the execution



An Aleppo woman has described the moment she saw Syrian rebels murder her 14-year-old son for cracking a joke about the Prophet Mohammed.

Mohammed Katta was shot dead in broad daylight by Islamist fighters in the city which has been at the heart of the insurrection against the regime of President Bashar Assad.

Nadia Umm Faud, Mohammed's mother, was just yards away when her son, a drummer boy in the revolution's early protest marches, was shot three times and left for dead.

Murdered for a 'joke': Mohammad Katta, 14, right, who was shot dead by rebels in Aleppo

Her testimony comes as the U.S. sought to persuade Western and Arab allies to commit to directing all aid to Syrian rebels through the Western-backed Supreme Military Council to try to reduce the power of jihadi groups.

She told the Daily Telegraph how she was at home in Aleppo's Shaar district when the rebel fighters, who she believes were foreigners, drove her badly beaten son back to his home neighbourhood.

Hearing the warning shouts of neighbours she ran to the apartment's balcony where she saw group arrive.

'I said to his father, "They are going to shoot your son! Come! Come! Come!" I was on the stairs when I heard the first shot,'she recalled.

Shot: Mohammed's mother told how she saw her son being shot. He was fired at three times by activists

An image grab taken from Syria's official television channel al-Ikhbariya reportedly shows the body of 14-year old Mohammad after he was shot dead

'I was at the door when I hear the second shot.

'I saw the third shot.'

The killers ignored her screams, merely giving her a dirty look as they climbed into their car, she said.



'As they went, they drove over my son's arm, as he lay there dying.'

A city overcome with savagery: A rebel-held area in Aleppo, where a 14-year-old boy was shot dead by Islamists fighters for cracking a joke which mentioned the Prophet Mohammed

A Syrian rebel fighter wearing the jihadi headgear carries a machine gun: Many foreign fighters, drawn to the opportunity to fight for their faith, are now based in the city, where they have formed their own brigades

Mohammed had been working at the family's coffee stall in Aleppo's Shaar district when he made the quip that sealed his fate.

Asked by a customer to hand over a coffee in return for later payment, he shouted: 'I wouldn't give the Prophet Mohammed credit if he came here today.'

Two men who overheard his comment marched over and dragged him off in a car, ignoring his protestations of piety and even the objections of a militiaman from the Free Syrian Army.

When they returned, half-an-hour later, Mohammed had been beaten. He was staggering and fell to his knees when they pulled him from the car and a bag had been placed over his head.

Mohammed was not heard to say anything from the moment he was taken away, to the moment he was shot dead.

His father Abdulwahab Katta said: 'I saw my son, and saw him dead, and saw a fountain of blood coming out of him.

'I, too, said nothing. I was mute.'

Run! A Free Syrian Army fighter drops his gun as he runs for cover at the frontline in Aleppo's Al-Sakhour area

Heavy weapons: A Free Syrian Army fighter fires a machine gun. Western and Arab opponents of Bashar al-Assad today met in Qatar to tighten coordination of their stepped up support for rebels

Sniper: A Free Syrian Army fighter points his weapon as he takes a position at the frontline in Al-Sakhour

The killing has shocked the people of Aleppo, a city hardened by nearly two years of internecine warfare. They fear that an Islamist credo of thus far unseen savagery has entered the conflict there.

Even Jabhat al-Nusra, the local affiliate of Al Qaeda, has issued a statement condemning the killing and denying responsibility. But their status as war's most militant Islamist group has now been eclipsed.

FIERCE FIGHTING IN ALEPPO

Clashes between rebels and the Syrian Army continued today in and around the northern city of Aleppo, where government forces announced an offensive earlier this month.

Activists said troops clashed in the southern neighbourhoods of Rashideen and Hamdaniya and in the western suburbs.

The Coventry-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said rebels pounded a military academy in the area, causing a fire in the compound. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

In Rashideen, rebel forces have pushed government forces out from parts of the neighbourhood, according to the local Aleppo Media Centre network and posts on Facebook.

A statement by a coalition of rebel groups, posted on the Centre's page, declared that the fighters are launching a new operation to seize control of the western neighborhoods of Aleppo.

Amateur showed what appeared to be intense government shelling of villages in the area.

Many foreign fighters, drawn to the opportunity to fight for their faith, are now based in the city, where they have formed their own brigades, which are often better armed and better paid than those of local fighters.

Ms Umm Faud believes it was foreigners linked to groups like these who killed her son. She said they spoke a classical version of Arabic rather than the local dialect.

Western and Arab opponents of Bashar al-Assad today met in Qatar to tighten coordination of their stepped up support for rebels.

After a series of military offensives by Assad's troops, including the recapture of a strategic border town two weeks ago, President Barack Obama said the U.S. would increase military support for the rebels.

Two Gulf sources told Reuters that Saudi Arabia had also accelerated delivery of advanced weapons to the rebels, who say they need anti-aircraft and anti-tank weapons to stem the fightback by Assad's forces.

The increasingly sectarian dynamic of the war pits mainly Sunni Muslims against forces loyal to Assad, from the Alawite minority which is an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam, and has split the Middle East along Sunni-Shi'ite lines.