Story By: Conor Sheils, Sub Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Central European News

Video Credit: CEN/@RevolutionSyria

This is the moment militiamen reportedly aligned with Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad can be seen desecrating the graves and bodies of opposition fighters in the country’s embattled Idlib province.

The footage, reportedly recorded in a graveyard in Khan al Sebel village, located south of war-torn Idlib, has sparked controversy and outrage across the Arab world.

According to local media, the men are fighters from the Shabiha militias, which have been loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad during the country’s nine-year civil war.

In the footage, men can be seen pelting the gravestone of a reported Free Syrian Army commander with stones, before destroying it.

According to reports, a militant who appeared in the graveyard video has also surfaced in a clip driving past the graveyard and calling the inhabitants “impure”.

According to local media, it is not the first time pro-Assad forces have reportedly dug up graves in areas under their control with dozens of corpses exhumed in Homs in 2015.

The news comes at a time when the government and pro-Assad militias are attempting to regain control of Idlib, the last opposition-held province in the country using a mixture of ground troops and Russian-backed air raids.

Latest UN estimates suggest that nearly 700,000 people have been displaced in the fighting.

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