Khaled al-Hamad
خالد الحمد
Also known as: Abu Sakkar
Biography
Khaled al-Hamad, known by his nom de guerre Abu Sakkar, was an FSA commander from Homs who became internationally infamous in May 2013 when a video surfaced showing him cutting open the chest of a dead Syrian soldier and appearing to bite the soldier's heart or lung while speaking into the camera. The video became one of the most disturbing images of the Syrian civil war's brutalization — used by the Assad government to discredit the opposition, condemned by the FSA's leadership, and cited by Western governments as evidence of atrocities on both sides. Al-Hamad's background: a farmer and small businessman from Baba Amr who joined the uprising from its earliest days and became a fighter as the regime's crackdown intensified. His trajectory — from peaceful protester to FSA fighter to commander capable of committing public acts of mutilation — traced the war's moral collapse in concentrated form.