Correspondent, Cameramen for Iran TV Channels Injured While in Aleppo
A correspondent for Iran’s Arabic-language Alalam television news network and a cameraman for Al-Kawthar television network have been injured while covering advances by the Syrian army in the northwestern province of Aleppo.
Local sources, requesting not to be named, said terrorists launched a barrage of mortar shells at three vehicles carrying correspondents and cameramen as they were traveling in a neighborhood of the recently-liberated strategic town of Khan Tuman.
The sources added that terrorists targeted Alalam correspondent Zia Qaddour, and the cameraman of the channel, identified as Ibrahim Kahil, in the southwestern countryside of Aleppo, located 362 kilometers (225 miles) north of the capital Damascus, on Sunday evening.
Last year, Qaddour’s son and former Alalam cameraman, Yazan Kahil, was killed during his coverage of army battles in the countryside of Aleppo.
Local sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Al-Kawthar cameraman Sohaib al-Masry and a number of staff for Syria’s Damascus-based television station Sama TV and Iraqi television news network, Aletejah TV, also sustained injuries.
Back on January 31, 2018, Masry was injured when covering developments on the Turkish military’s cross-border offensive in Syria’s northwestern region of Afrin against the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) militants.
Local sources, requesting anonymity, said at the time that the cameraman sustained gunshot wounds as Turkish troops were firing shots at the positions of the Kurdish militants.
Ankara views the YPG as the Syrian branch of the militant Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) that has been fighting for an autonomous region inside Turkey since 1984.
Syria’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates wrote to the United Nations on January 25, stressing that the operation in Idlib and Aleppo against Takfiri elements “will not stop until the elimination of those terrorists, who threaten safety and security of Syrian civilians.”
The Syrian army declared the start of an offensive against foreign-sponsored militants in Idlib on August 5 last year.
It came after those positioned in the de-escalation zone failed to honor a ceasefire brokered by Russia and Turkey and continued to target civilian neighborhoods.
Under the Sochi agreement, all militants in the demilitarized zone that surrounds Idlib, and also parts of the provinces of Aleppo and west-central province of Hama, were supposed to pull out heavy arms by October 17 2018, with the Takfiri groups having to withdraw two days earlier.
Source: Press TV Website