Abdul Hameed al-Yousef

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Abdul Hameed al-Yousef, a Syrian photographer and camera operator for the pro-civil rights opposition Kafr Rumah Media Office, was killed on November 10, 2019, when forces supporting President Bashar al-Assad shelled Kafr Rumah, a town in Idlib governorate, according to Facebook posts by al-Yousef’s employer, the local press freedom group the Syrian Journalists’ Association, and Faiz al-Doghaim, a Syrian journalist, who spoke with CPJ via messaging app.

At the time of the attack, al-Yousef was covering Russian airstrikes and Syrian Army artillery shelling, al-Doghaim, who works for the pro-opposition broadcaster Syria TV, told CPJ.

A media activist named Mohammad Adel Belilou was cited by the Syrian Journalists’ Association as saying that al-Yousef was hit by shrapnel in the head and the abdomen, and died instantly. A Facebook post from the Kafr Rumah Media Office said that at least six other civilians, including three children, were killed in the shelling.

Al-Yousef worked on a volunteer basis for the Kafr Rumah Media Office and he covered airstrikes and bombings, human interest stories, and life in the camps of internally displaced Syrians, al-Doghaim told CPJ.

On the day of the attack, al-Yousef was helping al-Doghaim prepare reports for Syria TV. “I waited until the shelling stopped to go to the targeted area to document the victims, but I didn’t know he was among them. I saw him in an ambulance of the rescue teams and he was dead,” al-Doghaim said.

Mostafa Hammade, a journalist at the Kafr Rumah Media Office, told CPJ via messaging app on November 11 that, in addition to documenting victims of the attacks by Al-Assad aligned forces on Kafr Rumah, Al-Yousef also covered politics and sports events.

The Syrian Defense Ministry did not reply to CPJ’s emailed request for comment in November 2019.