{"id":22982,"date":"2018-11-23T16:23:41","date_gmt":"2018-11-23T16:23:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=22982"},"modified":"2018-11-23T16:23:41","modified_gmt":"2018-11-23T16:23:41","slug":"gunmen-kill-two-activists-in-syrias-rebel-held-idlib-province","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=22982","title":{"rendered":"Gunmen kill two activists in Syria\u2019s rebel-held Idlib province"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\nBEIRUT: Two activists critical of both the regime and militancy were gunned down Friday in Syria\u2019s last major rebel bastion in the northwest of the country, their radio station and a monitor said.
Citizen journalist Raed Fares and Hammoud Al-Juneid were \u201cshot dead by unknown assailants riding in a van in the town of Kafr Nabel\u201d in Idlib province, Fresh FM said on its Facebook page.
More than half of Idlib and the surrounding region is controlled by Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham, an alliance led by militants of Syria\u2019s former Al-Qaeda affiliate, while most of the rest is held by pro-Turkey rebels.
Daesh also has a presence in the province.
Targeted killings and kidnappings have for months plagued Idlib, with angry residents blaming all sides.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor, said the two men died of their wounds from the attack, for which there was no immediate claim of responsibility.
\u201cThey were famous for their criticism of rebels committing violations or arresting civilians, especially when it came to jihadist groups,\u201d Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman said.
\u201cBoth have several times been detained by Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham,\u201d he said.
Throughout Syria\u2019s seven-year uprising, Fares has been known for his often humorous signs in English and Arabic criticizing President Bashar Assad\u2019s regime.
Fares founded Fresh FM in 2013 to counter \u201cfundamentalist narratives\u201d in Idlib, he has said, after which he was repeatedly targeted by armed groups.
Daesh militants raided the radio\u2019s offices on several occasions, but it was also bombarded by regime forces, he wrote in an op-ed for the Washington Times in June.
\u201cIn 2014, I almost lost my life when two armed men opened fire at me and shot me in the chest,\u201d he said.
\u201cI was abducted four times by Al-Qaeda militants and released a few days later after being tortured.\u201d
Fares\u2019s killing was a blow to the few independent voices that have continued to promote nonviolence and democratic change in the war-torn country.
Social media sites were rife with the news of Fares\u2019 killing. \u201cMy last friend & hope 4 a better Syria has been killed (today) after being let down by\u201d everyone, Zaina Erhaim, a UK-based Syrian journalist who left the country in 2016, wrote on Twitter.
Fares gained fame during the Syrian uprising because of continued support for opposition protests even when the conflict took a violent turn.<\/p>\n

\n\"\"
\nAnti-Syrian government activist Raed Fares, who was also a vocal critic of militants, was killed by masked gunmen with his colleague Hammoud Al-Juneid, in Kafr Nabl, south of Idlib. (Kafranbl News via AP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\nHis town gained attention during weekly anti-government protests because of the humorous English-language banners he created for each rally. \u201cDo not send money. Gold is not edible,\u201d one banner read, urging the world to free a besieged area instead of sending assistance.
He organized protests to express support for the victims of the 2013 Boston bombings, which he called \u201ca sorrowful scene of what happens in Syria every day. Do accept our condolences.\u201d
Fares was also a vocal critic of militants, supporting rallies against them, and accusing them of silencing dissent. The Observatory reported that more than 390 people have been shot and killed since April in the rebel-held north amid a wave of assassination and lawlessness.
Mohammed Katoub, a doctor who supports health facilities in rebel-held areas, said public figures and civil society activists are increasingly under threat in northwestern Syria by militant groups. He said at least 13 doctors have disappeared since 2018.
\u201cI think the targeted people are all public figures and community leaders who believe in the same values of humanity, dignity, justice and liberty,\u201d Katoub said. \u201cYou can\u2019t know (Fares) without loving him, his smile, his optimism, his hopes for Syria, (his) way of thinking and creativity.\u201d
Al-Juneid, who also worked at the radio, was an advocate for freedom of expression and the rule of law.<\/p>\n

\n\"\"
\nAnti-Syrian government activist Hammoud al-Juneid, who was also a vocal critic of militants, was killed by masked gunmen with his colleague Raed Fares, in Kafr Nabl town, south of Idlib. (Kafranbl News via AP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\n\u201cI want freedom of opinion. I want to be able to speak and not be scared,\u201d he said in a video posted on Facebook earlier this year.
A September deal between regime ally Russia and rebel backer Turkey held off a major regime assault to retake Idlib.
But a buffer zone has yet to be implemented around the region, as stipulated by the deal, after militants refused to withdraw from a planned demilitarised area by mid-October.
Syria\u2019s civil war has killed more than 360,000 people and sent millions fleeing from their homes since it started in 2011 with the brutal repression of anti-regime protests.
It has since evolved into a complex conflict involving world powers and militants.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BEIRUT: Two activists critical of both the regime and militancy were gunned down Friday in Syria\u2019s last major rebel bastion in the northwest of the country, their radio station and a monitor said.Citizen journalist Raed Fares and Hammoud Al-Juneid were \u201cshot dead by unknown assailants riding in a van in the town of Kafr Nabel\u201d…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":22983,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22982","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22982","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22982"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22982\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/22983"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}