Syrian cannibal rebel who ate soldier's heart and liver killed in Syria

Damascus: A Syrian cannibal rebel who had been accused of killing a government soldier and eating his heart and liver has been killed in the Syrian city of Latakia, according to a report in the Daily Mail.

The Al-Nusra fighter, Abu Sakkar, was killed after the convoy in which he was traveling was attacked.

Rival rebels “assassinated Khaled al-Hamad, who was known as Abu Sakkar and who was a military commander in Al-Nusra, by gunning him down” in the northwestern province of Idlib, the Observatory said late on Tuesday.

Sakkar has long been in the news as he was once filmed while he cut open a dead government soldier and later ate his heart and liver.

In 2013, he appeared in a propaganda video where he was shown cutting open a soldier. The video was posted online by the rebel group. The video showed Sakkar standing on top of a dead body. He looked towards the camera and pretended to rant something about Syrian president Assad. He then cut open the corpse and dug out his body parts. He is shown looking at the camera while eating the flesh.

At the time, he was fighting in a rebel brigade in central Homs province.

'Soldier's heart cut out and eaten' in horrific propaganda video:

The cannibalistic rebel was the founder of Farouq Brigade. He later joined the Al-Nusra rebel group.

While some believe that he was killed by government forces, others say that he was attacked by rebels.

The Syrian conflict began as a peaceful uprising against President Bashar al-Assad in March 2011 but swiftly escalated into an armed rebellion after his regime unleashed a brutal crackdown.

Many Syrians became radicalised, and human rights groups have accused all sides in the fighting of committing atrocities.