Video of Syrian Rebel Attack on Aleppo Prison Returns to YouTube

Image: MOHAMMED AL-KHATIEB/AFP

Warning: This post contains images and video of war that some readers may find disturbing.

UPDATE, 5:31 p.m. ET: Though it's still unclear why it was taken down in the first place, the original video is back on YouTube with a content warning

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A dramatic video of a Syrian rebel attack on an Aleppo prison was posted to YouTube on Thursday, but by early afternoon on Friday, YouTube had removed it for violating the site's policy on violence.

The video contained 46 minutes of footage, presumably from a Feb. 6 assault on the Aleppo central prison, showing various scenes of the attack. A British man, reportedly of Pakistani decent and named Abdul Waheed Majid, could be seen in the video, standing next to the truck in which, a few minutes later, he would die in a suicide mission.

Here's a picture of the suicide bomb driven by British citizen Abu Suleiman al-Britani into Aleppo prison yesterday. http://ift.tt/1g0Hnne

- Shiraz Maher (@ShirazMaher) February 7, 2014

Majid was shown relaxed, with his hands in his pockets, talking to other rebels, next to an armored truck that would explode a few minutes later - with Majid inside - en route to the prison. A couple of rebels took pictures with him, pointing their fingers towards the sky.

Later, the cameraman approached him and said something in Arabic. Majid replied, 'Sorry?' - apparently apologizing for not speaking Arabic. When another rebel approached and started acting like an interpreter, Majid made a joke and gestured that his tongue was tied, and smiled.

Richard Hall, a reporter for The Independent tweeted that Majid looked 'remarkably relaxed for a man who is about to blow himself up.'

The video then showed the armored truck moving towards the prison. The camera view didn't capture it clearly, but there was a big explosion just a few moments later, and rebels started shouting 'Allahu Akbar.'

The last third of the video that was removed was shot from a head-mounted camera, and showed rebels moving, apparently after the trucks' explosion. The group appeared to be led by Sayfullah as-Shishani, a leader of the jihadist group Al-Nusra.

After the group retreated, a shell hit very close to them, apparently killing as-Shishani; The images in the video (screenshot below) seemed to confirm his death, which was reported last week during the attack.

What seems to be the same sequence is shown in a different, shorter video captured from another angle. Published two days ago, it remains on YouTube:

We have reached out to YouTube to find out more about the reasons why the longer video was removed. Apart from the last sequence, that showed as-Shishani's body, the video contained few scenes of graphic violence.

UPDATE, 4:45 p.m.: Eliot Higgins, a British blogger who runs the respected Brown Moses Blog tracking arms in Syria, downloaded the video and has re-uploaded it to YouTube. We have embedded the video below.

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