A sniper shot Asaad, an editor for the state-run daily Tishreen,
outside his home in the Tadamoun neighborhood of Damascus, according the state
news agency SANA and other pro-government news outlets. Asaad, who was on his
way to work, was struck in the head, the reports said. SANA claimed he was
killed by “armed terrorist groups,” a catch-all phrase the government used to
describe all armed opposition forces.
Asaad, who was born in 1951, had moved into semi-retirement
but continued to write and oversee editorial content at Tishreen,
according to news reports. The Tadamoun neighborhood had been the site of continuous
recent fighting between rebels and government forces, according to news reports.
On November 21, rebel forces killed Basel Tawfiq Youssef, a reporter for Syrian State TV, outside
his home in Tadamoun, news reports said.