BEIRUT: Four professional and citizen journalists have been killed in Syria in one week at the hands of regular troops, rebels and Kurdish militia, an international media rights watchdog said on Friday.
State television journalist Basel Tawfiq Yousef was shot dead in near his home in southern Damascus on Wednesday, state news agency SANA said, blaming “armed terrorist groups” for his death, using the regime’s term for rebels.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights confirmed Yousef’s assassination, and cited activists as saying that he was accused by rebels of being a “shabiha,” or supporter of pro-regime militia.
Meanwhile, citizen journalist Hozan Abdel Halim Mahmoud was killed while filming clashes between rebels and Kurdish militia loyal to the Democratic Union Party (PYD) in Ras al-Ain, on November 20, said Reporters Without Borders (RSF).
“Mahmoud had been very active covering demonstrations in the nearby city of Qamishli,” RSF added.
On November 18, citizen journalist Mohammed al-Khaled was executed by the Namr battalion of the Diraa al-Shahbaa rebel brigade in the northern city of Aleppo, after he made repeated criticism of its methods, RSF said.
Also in Ras al-Ain, the scene of intense fighting between rebels and Kurds, Abed Khalil, a Kurd and journalist by profession, was shot dead by a rebel Free Syrian Army sniper during clashes, the Paris-based watchdog added.
Citing the Syrian Journalistic Association, RSF also reported the killing under torture on November 17 by military intelligence personnel in Aleppo of Abdullah Hassan Kaake, a citizen journalist.
“Two of his brothers – Abdel Ghani, another citizen-journalist, and Ahmed Kaake – have already been killed since the start of the uprising in Syria,” RSF added.
According to RSF, at least 15 journalists and 41 citizen journalists have been killed in connection with their work since the start of the conflict in Syria.
In addition to the 15, citizen journalist Mohammed al-Zaher was killed when Al-Buweida in Damascus province was bombed on November 19. He was known under the pseudonym Abu Nasser Naimi.
And on November 16, citizen journalist Mustafa Kerman was fatally wounded when Bustan al-Qasr, a rebel-held district of Aleppo, was bombed.
Bloody week for Syrian journalists: RSF http://pixel.quantserve.com/pixel/p-89EKCgBk8MZdE.gif
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