Al-Ashlaq, a correspondent for the citizen news organization Shaam News Network, was killed along with two colleagues–Ammar Mohamed Suhail Zado, Shaam’s Homs director, and Lawrence Fahmy al-Naimi, the head of live streaming for the network–while filming clashes between security forces and armed rebels in Damascus. The journalists were in an apartment in the Al-Midan neighborhood when their building was shelled by security forces, according to a Shaam News Network representative who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The representative said the network believes security forces targeted the journalists. The representative told CPJ that the army had taken away the bodies and had not returned them to their families in Homs.
The Damascus-based Shaam News Network has posted thousands of videos documenting the unrest since the uprising began in March 2011. Shaam’s footage has been used heavily by several international news organizations including Al-Jazeera, BBC, and CNN.