The sickest of protests

Nearby, a man holds a flaming torch like the one used to set fire to Lt Moaz al-Kasasbeh in scenes that have horrified the world.

Thankfully, this was just a stunt by activists calling for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's alleged atrocities to be likened to those meted out by the jihadists.

Inside the cage, the children, some of whom appear to be as young as three, carry banners reading: 'Stop the killing of children'.

The protest, held in Douma, near Damascus, aims to draw attention to Syrians living under siege and dying from air strikes by forces loyal to Assad. 

It also condemned the lack of international action compared to that given to the fight against ISIS.  

It comes after more than 180 people - 55 of them women and children - were killed in Douma in the first ten days of this month by regime air strikes, according to British-based monitoring group, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR). 

Syrian rebel groups vowed over the weekend to retaliate by stepping up rocket attacks against regime-held areas. 

Speaking in a rare interview last week, Assad denied using barrel bombs against his own people - something human rights groups have accused him of doing throughout the four-year civil war.

The defiant tyrant has always denied claims of such atrocities, including allegations that chemical weapons were used in an attack outside the capital in 2013 that killed up to 1,400 people. 

SOHR said yesterday that heavy fighting in southern Syria has killed scores of pro-government and insurgent fighters in the past week, forecasting even fiercer violence as the weather clears.

Syria's army and allied combatants from Lebanon's Hezbollah launched a large-scale offensive in the region last week against insurgent groups, including al Qaeda's Syria wing Nusra Front and non-jihadist rebels.

Southern Syria is one of the last areas where mainstream rebels opposing President Assad have a foothold. They have lost ground to hardline Islamist militants in the four-year conflict.

More than 50 rebels have been killed in the fighting, the head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. 

Rami Abdulrahman said 43 members of the Syrian army and allied groups had also died, including 12 officers.

'Now the weather is better there will be Syrian air strikes. With the air strikes they will move forward,' he said. 

(dailymail.co.uk)