A media activist and volunteer with the Syrian Civil Defense teams, Anas al-Diyab, was killed in a regime airstrike on the town of Khan Sheikhoun in the southern Idleb countryside.
On Sunday, activists from Idleb mourned the media activist Anas al-Diyab and said that he was killed while covering the air attack, which hit Khan Sheikhoun and the villages and towns of the southern Idleb countryside.
The town of Khan Sheikhoun was subjected, for the third day in a row, to a heavy air bombardment by Assad regime warplanes and helicopters, which killed dozens of civilians and displaced hundreds to border regions.
The air attack comes within the framework of the military campaign started by Assad’s forces and Russia on northern Syria in February.
The journalist and Al Jazeera channel correspondent Alaa Eddin Hamdoun mourned Anas al-Diyab and said on Facebook: “Anas al-Diyab became a beautiful martyr during a bombardment of Khan Sheikhoun by Russian warplanes… He never left Khan Sheikhoun, and was documenting the crimes of the regime and its Russian allies. He was wounded a number of times during air and rocket strikes, and was a witness to the chemical massacre in Khan Sheikhoun.”
The activist Ibrahim al-Idlebi mourned Diyab, saying on Facebook: “My friend and colleague, who always had a smile, Anas, a media volunteer in the Civil Defense, lost his life today when he was hit by an airstrike in Khan Sheikhoun in the Idleb countryside. He will be a new star in our sky to illuminate the path of those who remain.”
A media activist from Saraqeb in the Idleb countryside, Amjad Bakir, was killed in January while covering opposition forces in the northern Hama countryside.
The Syrian Center for Press Freedoms in the Syrian Journalists Association, documented in its periodic report in July 2019 five violations against media in Syria during June.
The report said that the systematic bombardment on Idleb and the Hama countryside by the Syrian regime and its allies was a major reason for the continuing violations, while a policy of restrictions of press freedoms by various parties and security breakdowns which prevailed in some areas had also produced violations over the previous month.
The most prominent which the center documented in June was the death of two journalists, bringing the number of journalists whose deaths had been recorded since mid-June 2011 to 450.
This article was translated and edited by The Syrian Observer. The Syrian Observer has not verified the content of this story. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author.
