Syria / Middle East & North Africa

The Syrian militant group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham detained Ahmad al-Akhras, a photographer for the pro-opposition Syrian news website Sy24 and correspondent for the opposition-affiliated Syrian Revolutionary Media Office in Idlib, on April 28, 2018, near the northwestern Syrian city of Darkush, according to news reports, the regional press freedom group SKeyes Center for Media and…

Three journalists were injured when a bus carrying Russian media came under fire from unknown assailants in the Syrian city of Douma, 16 kilometers (10 miles) away from Damascus, in the eastern Ghouta region on April 11, 2018, according to news reports and the journalists’ employers.

In August 2012, freelance journalist Austin Tice disappeared while reporting in Syria. A brief video made public a few weeks later showed Tice as a captive. He has not been heard from since.

Two members of the Turkish-funded militant group Ahrar al-Sham on March 31, 2018, attacked Syrian photographer and cameraperson Mohammed Hussein Obeid, also known as Abu Fahd al-Shami, while he was covering the arrival of refugee convoys from eastern Ghouta to the northwestern Hama province, according to the Syrian Journalists Association and Obeid.

Beirut, March 20, 2018–Kamel abu al-Walid, a photographer for the Turkish-backed pro-opposition Jarabulus Media Office, died from injuries sustained in a March 19 landmine explosion in the northern Syrian city of Afrin, according to his employer, the Syrian Journalist Association, and the Syrian Network for Human Rights.

Beirut, March 14, 2018–Bashar al-Attar, a photographer for the pro-opposition Arbin Unified Media Office, died from injuries sustained in a March 12 airstrike in the rebel-held eastern Ghouta area of Syria, outside of Damascus, according to his employer and the Syrian Journalists Association.

Eight unidentified gunmen on March 1, 2018, assaulted Mohamed Abdulqader Sbeh, a reporter for the independent news website Madar Today, in the northwestern Syrian province of Idlib, according to the Syrian Journalist Association and the journalist’s employer.

Beirut, February 23, 2018–Abdul Rahman Ismael Yassin, a reporter for the pro-opposition Hammouriyeh Media Office, died from injuries sustained in a February 20 airstrike in the rebel-held eastern Ghouta area outside of Damascus, according to his employer and the Syrian Journalists Association.

Maher Abdelaziz, an engineer for the pro-opposition channel Orient TV, was injured in a rocket attack on February 19, 2018, in the rebel-held eastern Ghouta area outside of Damascus, according to his employer and the Syrian Journalists Association.

Walid al-Rashed, a media activist for the Syrian pro-opposition Ma’arra Media Center, was seriously injured during an airstrike on February 7, 2018, in the northwestern Syrian city of Ma’arra al-Numan, 21 miles south of Idlib, according to news reports, the Syrian Journalists Association, and his employer.