Al-Baali, 20, died of shrapnel wounds he sustained from government shelling
of Qaboun district in Damascus in early
June, according to news reports. Al-Baali had
left Qaboun and was on his way to cover Jobar, another neighborhood torn apart
by the conflict, when he was injured by the mortar strike, the reports said.
The journalist was hospitalized for several weeks in a coma before he died.
Al-Baali, who was also popularly known as “Mohamed Moaz,” began
filming and documenting the conflict in Syria when the uprising began in March 2011,
The New York Times reported. He
covered protests and clashes between the Syrian government and rebel forces for
the pro-opposition TV channel Orient News and provided interviews to several
other news outlets, the reports said.
Al-Baali was also one of the first journalists to enter the
besieged neighborhood of Daraya in southwest Damascus in August 2012 when
hundreds of civilians were killed by government
shelling, according to news reports.