A Syrian rebel commander has been caught on video cutting out the heart of a soldier and biting into it, Human Rights Watch said late Monday.

Amateur video posted online shows a man cutting into the dead soldier's torso and removing his liver and heart.

The New York-based rights group identified the man as Abu Sakkar, a founder of the rebel Omar al-Farouq Brigade. 

In the video, which prompted outrage on all sides of the country’s deadly civil war, the man says: "I swear to God we will eat your hearts and your livers, you soldiers of Bashar the dog,”according to HRW.

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Sakkar also uses sectarian language to insult Alawites, HRW said. More than 80,000 are thought to have been killed in the increasingly sectarian conflict, in which majority Sunni Muslims have sought to overthrow Assad, whose family is chiefly supported by Alawites, who are an offshoot of Shiite Islam.

Access to country is difficult because of government restrictions and security concerns, making it hard for observers and news organizations to independently verify the source and authenticity of Internet videos. 

HRW said it compared frames in the clip to similar videos of the same man and spoke to sources in Homs, including other rebels, who identified Sakkar.

“It is not known whether the Independent Omar al-Farouq Brigade operates within the command structure of the Free Syrian Army,” HRW said Monday. “But the opposition Syrian National Coalition and the Free Syrian Army leadership should take all possible steps to hold those responsible for war crimes accountable and prevent such abuses by anyone under their command.”

It repeated its call for the United Nations Security Council to refer Syria’s conflict to the International Criminal Court (ICC) to ensure accountability for all war crimes and crimes against humanity.

“Even by the standards of Syria's ever-worsening stream of atrocity and massacre videos, the latest footage from the country cannot fail to shock for its sheer savagery,” HRW emergencies director Peter Bouckaert wrote on the Foreign Policy news site.

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People resisting the army of President Bashar al-Assad in northern Syria cope with loss and prepare for fighting.

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“Abu Sakkar is just one man, and there are many other armed fighters in Syria who reject such sectarian actions and would be horrified by the mutilation and desecration of a corpse -- let alone an act of cannibalism. But he is a commander in a decisive battle in Syria -- hardly a marginal figure.”

Fahad Almasri, a spokesman for the Free Syrian Army condemned the actions portrayed in the video.

"First, who did this behavior has not the FSA, does not represent us and does not represent the Syrian Revolution. We in the joint command of FSA categorically reject any actions or behaviors do not respect the values and ethics of Syrian Revolution and FSA, and we condemn in the strongest words of condemnation of such acts of individual that does not accept them never," Almasri said.

The United States and Russia this week proposed an international conference aimed at ending the war. A Syria government minister on Tuesday said it wanted more details before deciding whether it would agree to attend, Reuters reported.

Syrian Information Minister Omran Zoabi was quoted by state news agency SANA as saying that Syria welcomed the proposal but stressed it "will not be a party at all to any ... meeting which harms, directly or indirectly, national sovereignty." 

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• Turkey PM: Red line has been crossed 
• Full Syria coverage from NBC News

Tunisian Presidency via AP, file

A 2005 photo shows then-Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, left, his wife, Laila, holding their child Mohamed, 9 months, as they celebrate the Eid al-Fitr in Tunis. The family fled the country after being ousted, and now Tunisia has gotten back some of the money it says the president took from the country.

TUNIS, Tunisia -- Tunisia received $28.8 million on Thursday in the first such retrieval of what it calls looted assets held abroad by ousted President Zine Abidine Ben Ali and his family.

The state news agency TAP said a check in that amount had been handed to President Moncef Marzouki by Ali bin Fetais Marri, appointed by the United Nations to head efforts to recover money from leaders overthrown in Arab uprisings.

Marri, Qatar's attorney general, was named UN Special Advocate for Stolen Asset Recovery in September.

TAP said the money returned to Tunisia had been in a Lebanese bank account belonging to Laila Trabelsi, the wife of Ben Ali, who fled to Saudi Arabia with his family on Jan. 14, 2011, after popular protests ended his 23-year rule.

Local media say billions of dollars acquired corruptly by Ben Ali and his entourage remains unaccounted for, but the exact amount is not known.

Tunisia's Islamist-led government, grappling with economic woes that include high unemployment, is under popular pressure to recover the money but faces legal and political difficulties in gaining access to the accounts where it is believed held.

An International Monetary Fund team arrived in Tunis this week to discuss a $1.78 billion loan requested by the government.

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'Great anger' rises in Tunisia

News Analysis

BEIJING -- There was confusion at the China-North Korea border Thursday after Chinese tour operators halted trips into the North.

Wang Zhao / AFP - Getty Images

Two men wait Thursday for dispatch at a customs port in the Chinese border city of Dandong. The largest border crossing between North Korea and China has been closed to tourist groups, a Chinese official said Wednesday.

It wasn't clear whether the instruction to do so came from the Chinese authorities, the North Koreans, or was made by the nervous operators themselves.

But it mirrored a wider confusion over Chinese policy toward Pyongyang, which depends on Beijing for food and fuel, as well as diplomatic support.

As North Korea readies what is thought to be a missile test, China's Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei has spent most of the week deflecting questions with the official line that "all sides" should show restraint and begin dialogue, and that peace and stability are a "shared responsibility."

But in an interview with NBC News he was more forthright about China's growing concern. "We do not want to see chaos and conflict on China's doorstep," he said.

In fact, there are signs that China is rethinking its policy toward the North. President Xi Jinping last weekend told a forum of political and business leaders that no country "should be allowed to throw a region and even the whole world into chaos for selfish gain." He didn't mention the North by name, but it was pretty clear who he was referring to.

Earlier, China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi had told UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon that Beijing would not allow "troublemaking on China's doorstep," a line repeated in an editorial in Thursday's China Daily.

China also supported the latest UN sanctions that followed North Korea's third nuclear test.

In fact, relations between the two have been souring for some time as Pyongyang has consistently ignored calls by Beijing for restraint.

"To many in Beijing, North Korea is looking less like a strategic asset and more like a strategic burden," said Cheng Xiaohe, associate professor at Renmin University's School of International Studies.

In the past, even when clearly unhappy, Beijing has treated the North with kid gloves because of fear of the North collapsing, and also as a hedge against U.S. power in Asia.

'Little Fatty'
According to leaked 2010 diplomat cables obtained by Wikileaks and posted by newspapers the Guardian and the New York Times, Chinese officials described the regime in the North as behaving like a "spoiled child."

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The youngest son of Kim Jong Il succeeded his late father in 2011, becoming the third member of his family to rule the unpredictable and reclusive communist state.

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Chinese social media, which is as close a barometer of public opinion as you can get here, has in recent days been buzzing with criticism -- not of the U.S., but of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, for leading his country to disaster and the world close to war.

Kim is derided as "Little Fatty" or "Fatty the Third."

One former top U.S. diplomat agrees there are clear signs that China is losing patience with North Korea. Kurt Campbell, the state department's top official for east asia, said there are signs that a relationship once described by Chairman Mao to be "as close as lips and teeth" is wearing thin.

He said this was notable in public statements and private conversations with U.S. officials. Speaking last week at a forum at Johns Hopkins University, he said this had the potential for a large impact on northeast Asia.

What's harder to say is how this growing frustration will be translated into concrete actions to pressure the North.

Cheng of Renmin University noted that in 2003 Beijing turned off the oil supply in order to force Pyongyang to join six-party talks and could use that weapon again.

"If China has political will, China can do something," he said. "China can make a difference."

Secretary of State John Kerry will be taking this up with China's leaders when he is there this weekend.

"China and the U.S. share common interests in peace, stability and denuclearisation," said the Foreign Ministry's Hong Lei. "We hope to work with the U.S. side towards that end."

Significantly, there has so far been no Chinese criticism of the display of U.S. high-tech firepower in the region, which is seen as another tacit condemnation of Pyongyang's antics.

That said, Kerry will no doubt point out, as other officials have done privately, that if China fails to act the result will be an even bigger U.S. military presence in the region and a possible regional arms race -- precisely what China has said it wants to avoid.

Related:

US on missile watch as North Korea celebrates

Full North Korea coverage from NBC News

Slideshow: Glimpses into the hermit kingdom of North Korea

David Guttenfelder / AP

As chief Asia photographer for the Associated Press, David Guttenfelder has had unprecedented access to communist North Korea. Here's a rare look at daily life in the secretive country.

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JUBA, South Sudan -- Five United Nations peacekeepers from India, and at least seven civilians, were killed Tuesday when armed rebels opened fire on a convoy in South Sudan.

South Sudan's military spokesman, Col. Philip Aguer, blamed the attack on fighters led by David Yau Yau, a Sudan-backed rebel leader South Sudan's military has battled for months.

The top U.N. envoy in South Sudan, Hilde Johnson, said in a statement that five peacekeepers and seven civilians working with the U.N. mission were killed. She said at least nine additional peacekeepers and civilians were injured and some remain unaccounted for.

Aguer said the attack took place on a convoy traveling between the South Sudanese towns of Pibor and Bor on Tuesday morning.

"Definitely this attack was carried out by David Yau Yau's militia," Aguer said. "They have been launching ambushes even on the SPLA for about six months now," he said, using the acronym for South Sudan's military.

South Sudan ended decades of civil war with Sudan in 2005 and peacefully formed its own country in 2011. But the south is still plagued by internal violence and shaky relations with Sudan. Leaders in Khartoum, Sudan's capital, deny that they are arming Yau Yau.

Syed Akbaruddin, spokesman of India's Ministry of External Affairs in New Delhi, India, said the convoy, which included 32 Indian soldiers, was attacked by rebels in Gurmukh in the volatile state of Jonglei. He said the casualties are being brought to the capital of South Sudan, Juba, and the injured will be sent to the U.N. mission hospital. The Indian embassy will work with the U.N. to bring the bodies back to India, he said.

India has about 2,200 Indian army personnel in South Sudan. They are in two battalions. One is based in Jonglei and the other is in Malakal, in the Upper Nile, on the border with Sudan.

The Indian embassy said it will inform families before releasing the names of the soldiers killed.

The top U.N. envoy in South Sudan, Johnson, sent condolences to the families of the dead and injured.

Related:

South Sudan prisons in tatters after decades of war

S. Sudan president: Sudan has declared war on us

PhotoBlog: Building South Sudan from scratch

Bob Strong / Reuters file

A prisoner reads a newspaper in a communal cell block at Camp VI at Guantanamo Bay prison. The UN on Friday called on the US to close the prison, accusing the country of violating international law.

GENEVA -- The UN human rights chief called on the United States on Friday to close down the Guantanamo Bay prison camp, saying the indefinite imprisonment of many detainees without charge or trial violated international law.

Navi Pillay said the hunger strike being staged by some inmates at the Guantanamo Bay U.S. Naval Base in southeastern Cuba was a "desperate act" but "scarcely surprising."

"We must be clear about this: The United States is in clear breach not just of its own commitments but also of international laws and standards that it is obliged to uphold," the UN high commissioner for human rights said in a statement.

About half of the 166 detainees there have been cleared for transfer either to home countries or third countries for resettlement, Pillay said. "As a first step, those who have been cleared for release must be released," she said.

"Others reportedly have been designated for further indefinite detention. Some of them have been festering in this detention center for more than a decade," she said.

Of the 166 detainees, only nine have been charged with or convicted of crimes.

Forty inmates are currently staging a hunger strike to protest against their indefinite detention, according to a U.S. military spokesman at Guantanamo. Some have lost so much weight that they are being force-fed liquid nutrients.

Government forces in Syria used chemical weapons against rebels near Damascus, an opposition campaigner told Reuters on Monday. 

Rebels had surrounded an army base in the town of Adra, on the outskirts of Damascus, when soldiers used rocket launchers to fire the weapons at them, killing two fighters and wounding 23, according to activist Mohammad Doumani. The claim could not immediately be verified by NBC News.

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"Doctors are describing the chemical weapon used as phosphorus that hits the nervous system and causes imbalance and loss of consciousness,” Doumani told Reuters from the nearby town of Douma, where the wounded were transported for treatment.

“The two fighters were very close to where the rockets exploded and they died swiftly. The rest are being treated with Atropine," he added.

There was no independent confirmation of the attack, which follows the death of 26 people in a rocket attack near the city of Aleppo last week. The authorities and rebels accused each other of firing a missile carrying chemicals there.

On Tuesday, both the rebels and the government claimed a chemical weapon was used during fierce fighting, with each side blaming the other for the attack. 

Reporting from inside Syria is increasingly difficult, and independent confirmation of the use of chemical weapons was impossible to ascertain.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Thursday announced that the United Nations will launch an investigation into the allegations.

However, the prospects for a quick conclusion to the probe will depend on cooperation from the warring parties and safety for investigators — problematic conditions in the chaos of the country's civil war, experts say.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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Full Syria coverage from NBC News

This story was originally published on Mon Mar 25, 2013 9:23 AM EDT

KINSHASA — Nearly 250 rebels who attacked a military camp and the provincial governor's office in Democratic Republic of Congo's southern mining hub of Lubumbashi on Saturday have surrendered, the country's U.N. peacekeeping mission said.

The government said it had killed about 15 of the estimated 300 Mayi-Mayi Kata Katanga separatists who attacked the capital of the Central African nation's copper and cobalt-rich Katanga province armed mainly with bows and arrows and machetes.

"The U.N. Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUSCO) welcomes the peaceful surrender of 245 Mayi-Mayi Kata Katanga combatants who sought refuge inside the MONUSCO compound in Lubumbashi," said a statement released on Sunday.

At least 35 people were killed in the violence, the statement said, citing local sources.

"The rebels should be handed over soon to the Government, following negotiations mediated by MONUSCO, between the governor of Katanga, military and provincial authorities and the Mayi-Mayi," it said.

Among the group were 54 injured fighters, 15 of them with serious wounds, the U.N. said.

Millions have died in the vast former Belgian colony's long-simmering armed conflicts concentrated in the eastern borderlands, but the mining areas around Lubumbashi have remained relatively calm.

However, the Mayi-Mayi, feeding off local grievances and secessionist sentiment, in recent months have ventured outside their stronghold in northern Katanga and towards the heart of the mining industry around Lubumbashi.

A witness to Saturday's attack said the group had attempted to hoist the flag of Katanga's short-lived 1960s-era independent republic before members of the army's elite Republican Guard launched a counterattack.

Katanga hosts many international mining companies, including Freeport McMoRan and commodities trader Glencore and exports about half a million metric tons of copper a year.