Jihadists Execute Iraqi Cameraman in Syria
Fighters linked to Al-Qaida have kidnapped and executed an Iraqi freelance cameraman working in northern Syria, a press freedom watchdog told AFP on Thursday.
"Yasser Faysal al-Joumaili's execution was the first of a foreign journalist in Syria's so-called liberated areas," said Soazig Dollet, head of Reporters Without Borders (RSF) Middle East and North Africa desk.
Joumaili had been working as a freelance cameraman for an unidentified Spanish media outlet in strife-torn Aleppo province for about 10 days, Dollet said.
He was kidnapped by fighters of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) while on his way out of Syria and executed in the northwestern border province of Idlib on Wednesday, she added.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Joumaili was stopped at a checkpoint by three armed men who then shot him.
The Baghdad-based Journalistic Freedoms Observatory (JFO) said Turkish officials were not allowing Joumaili's body to be brought out of Syria.
"The family of Joumaili told JFO that the body of their son was stuck at the Bab al-Hawa border crossing with Turkey and Turkish authorities were preventing it from passing," the group said.
It said Joumaili was 34 and married with three children.
He was from the city of Fallujah, west of Baghdad, a key battleground in the insurgency that followed the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, and had previously worked for Al-Jazeera International and Reuters.
In recent months, ISIL has kidnapped dozens of Syrian activists and news providers, as well as several foreign journalists.
The group, which has its roots in Al-Qaida's Iraq affiliate, was accused of assassinating Syrian reporter Mohammad Saeed, who worked for Al-Arabiya news channel, in his native Aleppo province in late October.
According to Paris-based RSF, Joumaili was the eighth foreign journalist to have been killed in Syria since the conflict erupted in March 2011.
Twelve Syrian professional journalists and at least 91 citizen journalists have also been killed.
RSF describes Syria as the world's most dangerous country to report on.
Source: Agence France Presse
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