adminAl-Qaeda-linked militants in Syria have kidnapped and executed an Iraqi cameraman in the country’s north. Yasser Faysal al-Joumaili was kidnapped by militants of the al-Qaeda-affiliated Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) on his way out of Syria and executed in Idlib province on Wednesday, said Soazig Dollet, head of Reporters Without Borders’ Middle East and North Africa desk, yesterday.
Joumaili, who was in his 30s, had been working as a freelance cameraman for a Spanish media outlet in Aleppo for about 10 days, Dollet said.
The Iraqi man was reportedly from Fallujah city, west of the capital, Baghdad, and had three children.
Foreign-backed militants fighting against the government of the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad have abducted several journalists since the beginning of the crisis in the Arab country.
On 25 November, Sweden’s Foreign Ministry said that two Swedish journalists were abducted in Syria while they were leaving the country. According to Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter, the abductees were Magnus Falkehed, the newspaper’s stringer in Paris, and Niclas Hammarstrom, a freelance photographer.
In late October, foreign-backed militants assassinated the Syrian reporter Mohammad Saeed, who worked for al-Arabiya news channel, in Aleppo.
On 26 September 2012, Press TV correspondent Maya Naser was shot and killed by a militant sniper while reporting live. He was being accompanied by Hossein Mortada, who was also injured in the attack.
Syria has been gripped by deadly unrest since 2011.
Over 100,000 people have been killed and millions displaced due to the violence, according to the UN. – Presstv.
Online Reporter