Two freelance journalists killed in Syria

CPJ, the Committee to Protect Journalists, is reporting that two freelance journalists of Algerian descent were shot and killed by Syrian security forces Monday in Darkoush, a town near the Turkish border. A third journalist was wounded.

The deceased, according to Spanish daily newspaper, El Mundo, have been identified as Naseem Intriri and Walid Bledi. The witness interviewed by CPJ has confirmed this. The identity of the wounded journalist is not known at this time. According to The Guardian, the journalists were filming a documentary about Syrians fleeing to Turkey to escape the conflict. A witness told CPJ that Syrian soldiers shot at the house in Darkoush where the journalists had been staying with Syrian activists. The witness, whose identity is remaining hidden for obvious reasons, stayed in the house with the journalists for a week. He recounted that when the shooting began, Intiri and Bledi left, and came back when it looked like things had calmed down. Upon returning to the house, one journalist was shot in the head and the other in the chest. He also said the soldiers took the journalists' bodies, but this was not immediately confirmed according to CPJ. The wounded journalist was shot in the left shoulder, and taken to a hospital in Antakya, Turkey, which is close to the Syrian border. Mohammed Abel Dayem, CPJ's, Middle East and North Africa program coordinator, commented on the tragedy: "We offer our condolences to family and colleagues of Naseem Intiri and Walid Bledi. Their deaths are yet another illustration of the grave dangers that journalists face in reporting a conflict that the Syrian government has sought to hide from the world." According to Journalism.co.uk, ten journalists have been killed in Syria since November, making it the most dangerous place in the world for journalists.