By Nur Asena Erturk
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) called for an independent investigation into the murders of two journalists in Syria.
Award-winning Syrian journalist Anas Alkharboutli was killed in an airstrike by the Bashar al-Assad regime in western Syria on Wednesday, and Mustafa al-Kurdi, a correspondent for the news website Focus Aleppo, was shot by soldiers of the regime’s forces last week in Aleppo.
“Targeting media workers is a war crime,” the RSF and the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression (SCM) said in a joint statement on Thursday.
“RSF and SCM are calling for independent investigations to identify and bring to justice the perpetrators of these two murders,” it added.
Jonathan Dagher, head of RSF's Middle East Desk, expressed fear that “this conflict will cause more violence against journalists as it looks set to last.”
“Independent investigations must be launched immediately to determine who is responsible for these crimes and bring them to justice. If these two reporters were identified and targeted as journalists, their murders will constitute war crimes,” Dagher further said and recalled that 194 journalists were killed on duty since 2011, the start of the conflict in Syria.
SCM’s Programs Manager Yara Bader said: “No party to any conflict, regardless of its objectives, can use hostilities as a shield to evade responsibility for targeting journalists, neglecting their protection, or showing leniency toward perpetrators.”
She criticized the “international community's persistent failure to hold those accountable for targeting journalists in Syria,” which “has set a dangerous precedent, emboldening others to follow suit—from Ukraine to Palestine.”
Clashes between Syrian regime forces and anti-regime groups first erupted on Nov. 27 in the western countryside of Aleppo.
By Nov. 30, the opposition forces had taken control of most of Aleppo’s city center and established dominance across Idlib province.
On Dec. 1, the opposition Syrian National Army launched the Operation Dawn of Freedom against the PKK/YPG terror group in the Tel Rifaat district of Aleppo's countryside, liberating the area from terrorist elements.