News / Syria

Syrian correspondent killed while covering anti-terror offensive in Harasta

Wednesday, 17 January 2018 5:19 PM [ Last Update: Wednesday, 17 January 2018 5:25 PM ]

Lieutenant Colonel Sharaf Walid Khalil, the slain field correspondent for the press office of the Syrian army (Photo by SANA)

A field correspondent for the press office of the Syrian army has lost his life while covering territorial advances made by government forces and allied fighters from popular defense groups in battles against foreign-sponsored Takfiri terrorists on the eastern outskirts of the capital Damascus.

Syria’s official news agency, SANA, reported that Lieutenant Colonel Sharaf Walid Khalil was killed on Wednesday as army troops and their allies were moving deeper into the city of Harasta.

Walid Khalil was born in Damascus in 1978. He graduated from the Journalism and Media Department of Damascus University in 1997.

He was killed three months after Syrian cameraman Mohammed Milad working for state television lost his life when an explosive device went off in the central province of Homs.

Daesh Takfiris had reportedly mined the area heavily in an attempt to slow the advance of Syrian forces.

Mohsen Khazaei, slain Iranian reporter for the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB)

On November 12, 2016, Mohsen Khazaei, an Iranian reporter for the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB), was killed in the Minyan district of Syria’s northwestern city of Aleppo amid fierce fighting between government forces and terrorists. His cameraman sustained injuries.

On October 13, 2016, Polish freelance journalist Patryk Skolak was killed in Aleppo.

Back in September 2012, Press TV’s correspondent in Syria, Maya Naser, lost his life in a militant assault in Damascus.

According to the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders, known by its French acronym as the RSF, at least 211 journalists and citizen journalists have been killed in Syria since the start of the foreign-backed militancy there in March 2011.

Press TV’s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses:

www.presstv.co.uk