Shaaban, a cameraman for the Beirut-based TV station
Al-Jadeed, was shot
by plainclothes Syrian security forces as he and colleagues were reporting from
Wadi Khaled, a northern Lebanese town along the Syrian border, Al-Jadeed said.
Shaaban, Al-Jadeed reporter Hussein Khreis, and cameraman
Abdel-Azim Khayat were reporting on border security issues from the Lebanese
side when Syrian forces across the border told them to retreat, Khreis told
Al-Jadeed in an interview.
As Shaaban and Khayat got into their car, Syrian forces opened fire on them,
Khreis said.
The Associated Press, citing Al-Jadeed, reported that more
than 40 shots were fired, riddling the journalists’ car with bullets and
preventing them from getting medical care for Shaaban, who was hit during the
attack. When the gunfire subsided, the journalists took Shaaban to a hospital,
but he had already died, Khreis said.
Shaaban, 30, who began working at Al-Jadeed
in 2006, covered political developments in Lebanon over the past several years,
including the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah, his colleagues said. He
had celebrated his engagement days before his death.