Photos of Syrian old man killed by Iraqi militia spark outrage

Syrian Opposition activists have sparkled major outrage via social media after circulating photos for an old man has been murdered by Iraqi militants in the town of al-Nabk, 68 km (40 miles) northeast of Damascus.

Munir Abdul al-Hai (pictured), a man in his sixties has been tortured and killed by militant who operate under Shi'ite brigade, Thu al-Faqar, activists said.

Assad's military resurgence this year has relied to a great extent on support from Shi'ite Iranand fighters from Lebanon's Hezbollah and Iraqi militias, some of them based around a Shi'ite shrine southeast of Damascus.

They have helped turn the tide against the Sunni Muslim rebels, whose ranks are increasingly dominated by Islamist fighters and al Qaeda-linked foreign jihadists.

"In the last few months Assad has been increasingly leaving the fighting in the urban areas, especially Damascus and its environs, to his Shi'ite allies," a Middle East security official said to Reuters.

Activists on Thursday accused President Assad’s forces of again using poison gas in rebel-held areas, saying victims had been discovered with swollen limbs and foaming at the mouth.

The activists told Reuters that two shells loaded with gas hit a rebel-held area in Nabak. They reported seven casualties.

“Seven men are reported ill so far. They have swollen limbs and foam coming out of their mouths,” an activist calling himself Amer al-Qalamouni told Reuters.

Qalamouni added: “No doctors have got to them yet because Nabak is under ferocious bombardment and there are very few medical staff left.”

Amir Kazk, another activist in Nabak, said the two shells were part of a heavy barrage that hit the Tariq al-Mashfa district near the center of the town. The source of the fire, he added, appeared to be an army barracks on a hill in the nearby Deir Attiya area.

Video footage posted on YouTube by activists showed a man who said he had seen white smoke from the shelling, inhaled it and then passed out. Reuters cannot confirm its authenticity.

Meanwhile, the Syrian Revolution Coordinators Union also accused Assad’s forces of using poison gas and put the number of casualties at nine.

“We have documented nine casualties from poison gas used by the regime in neighborhoods of Nabak,” Reuters quoted the union as saying on its Facebook page.

A U.S. official in Washington said: “We have seen the reports, but have no confirmation.”

On Aug. 21, a nerve gas attack killed hundreds of people in rebel-held neighborhoods on the edge of Damascus. Each side blamed the other.

Opposition groups have accused Assad’s regime of using chemical weapons several times before and since the Aug. 21 incident that drew international condemnation.

To stave off a U.S. strike on Syria after the incident, Assad agreed to dismantle the country’s chemical weapons arsenal under a deal struck between Moscow and Washington.