One of Syria’s Most Famous Activists Killed by Assassins in Rebel Stronghold
One of Syria’s Most Famous Activists Killed by Assassins in Rebel Stronghold by Louisa Loveluck – Washington Post
One of the most famous activists in Syria was assassinated by gunmen, according to associates, underscoring the mortal threats facing a dwindling pool of dissidents who still openly oppose government and extremist forces there.
Raed Fares, 46, was the founder of Radio Fresh, a channel broadcasting news across Syria’s once sprawling opposition-held areas to warn of incoming airstrikes and counter the messages of militants who had come to dominate areas that fell from government control after a 2011 uprising.
For this, he had become a hunted man. Writing in The Washington Post earlier this year, Fares said he had survived at least one assassination attempt. He had also been abducted by al-Qaeda’s Syrian affiliate on multiple occasions. “But we haven’t given up. We’re still broadcasting our independent coverage of the Syrian revolution, countering terrorism and advocating tolerance,” he wrote.
Photographs shared online Friday showed the activist’s body lying on a hospital stretcher. An eyewitness said armed men had sprayed bullets into his car as it stopped outside an apartment block in Kafranbel, a town in the opposition enclave of Idlib, killing Fares and his colleague Hammoud al-Juneid…
