Iran’s Press TV reported that Naser, one of its
correspondents, was killed
by sniper fire while covering two explosions near military headquarters in
Damascus that were followed by intense fighting between government forces and
the rebel Free Syrian Army.
The sniper fire also wounded Hussein Mortada, Press TV’s
Damascus bureau chief, the state-run station reported.
The Free Syrian Army claimed responsibility for the
explosions, although it issued no immediate statement in regard to the
journalists, news reports said. Press TV blamed the journalist’s death on “Turkey,
Saudi Arabia, and Qatar, who provide weapons and militants to kill civilians,”
according to a statement
on its website.
Naser, 33, was a Syrian national who lived in Damascus and wrote
regularly on his own blog,
according to news reports. The journalist was seen as sympathetic to the regime
and, on his blog, had blamed the war in the country on the “West and Al-Qaeda,”
news reports said. In one of his last dispatches for Press TV, he reported on the
opposition parties meeting in Damascus in late September, news report said.