Monitor: Islamist rebels kill 12 Alawites in Syrian village

Fighters from an al Qaeda-linked rebel group killed 12 members of the minority Alawite sect in central Syria after seizing their village, an opposition monitoring group said on Wednesday. The latest killings occurred after rebels of the Nusra Front stormed the village of Maksar al-Hesan east of Homs on Tuesday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Alawites are an offshoot sect of Shiite Islam and have been increasingly targeted by radical fighters among the Sunni Muslim-dominated opposition in the revolt against President Bashar Assad, himself an Alawite. (Reuters)