Walid al-Rashed, a media activist for the Syrian pro-opposition Ma’arra Media Center, was seriously injured during an airstrike on February 7, 2018, in the northwestern Syrian city of Ma’arra al-Numan, 21 miles south of Idlib, according to news reports, the Syrian Journalists Association, and his employer.
Al-Rashed, who was covering airstrikes and cluster bombings in the area, had arrived at the scene of a Russian airstrike when an aircraft turned back and bombed the same area, Khaled Edlibe, al-Rashed’s colleague at Ma’arra Media Center who was at the scene, told CPJ.
The media activist’s right knee and left leg were injured in the attack, and he was transferred to a hospital in Darkush near the Syrian-Turkish border, according to Edlibe.
Pictures that Edlibe shared with CPJ show al-Rashed lying on a stretcher at the hospital of Darkush, with his right knee completely open and the bone sticking out, as a result of the blast. His left leg was covered in bandages.
Al-Rashed has been working as photographer and media activist for the Ma’arra Media Center for a year and half, covering clashes in the region and the humanitarian effects of war.
The media center covers the effects of the Syrian conflict on civilians in opposition or rebel-held areas.
According to local journalist Abd al-Kader Habak and the Syrian search and rescue group Syria Civil Defense, at least 13 airstrikes and a cluster bomb shelling targeting civilian areas hit the city of Ma’arra al-Numan on February 7, 2018, killing at least 10 people.
Russia’s Defense Ministry denies targeting civilians and says it aims only hardline Islamist militants in Syria, according to a Reuters report from February 5, 2018.