Syria 'heart-eating' rebel killed

A Syrian fighter who appeared in a gruesome video cutting out the heart of a regime soldier and eating it has been shot dead by rival rebels, a monitoring group said.

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 Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said late on Tuesday.

In May 2013, Abu Sakkar appeared in a video showing him eating the heart of a dead regime soldier, sparking an international outcry and condemnation from the mainstream Syrian opposition.

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