Syria: Syria: Two Kurdish journalists killed in car bombing in Abu Fas while covering conflict

Journalist Dilîşan Îbiş was killed instantly and journalist Hogir Mihemed suffered fatal injuries when two Daesh attackers carried out a suicide car bomb targeting civilians on a road in Abu Fas, Al-Hasakah in Eastern Syria on 12 October 2017. Îbiş died in the blast and Mihemed died of severe injuries to his head the next day in hospital. Another journalist, Rizgar Deniz, was injured in the blast, which happened when the Syrian Kurdish journalists were covering the conflict in the area for the Rojava based Hawar News Agency.

The suicide bombers affiliated with Daesh carried out the attacks on civilians fleeing the conflict, which left at least 15 civilians dead, in addition to the two journalists, and at least 100 injured.

Îbiş worked for two years as a reporter for Hawar News Agency, after working for several years as a war correspondent for the radio station “the Voice of Kobane”.

At the time of his death, Mihemed had been working for two months as a reporter for Hawar News Agency.

The Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR) is deeply concerned about the safety of Syrian human rights defenders and citizen journalists who are at risk of targeting and assassination while they practice their legitimate activities, including covering the war in Syria.

GCHR urges the authorities who are parties to the conflict to: 

1. Stop non-discriminate attacks that leads the death of civilians, including human rights defenders and journalists in Syria; and
2. Guarantee the physical safety and security of all human rights defenders and journalists in Syria while they carry out their work.

GCHR respectfully reminds you that the United Nations Declaration on the Right and Responsibility of Individuals, Groups and Organs of Society to Promote and Protect Universally Recognised Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, adopted by consensus by the UN General Assembly on 9 December 1998, recognizes the legitimacy of the activities of human rights defenders, their right to freedom of association and to carry out their activities without fear of reprisals. We would particularly draw your attention to Article 6 (c) “Everyone has the right, individually and in association with others: (c) To study, discuss, form and hold opinions on the observance, both in law and in practice, of all human rights and fundamental freedoms and, through these and other appropriate means, to draw public attention to those matters" and to Article 12.2, which provides that “the State shall take all necessary measures to ensure the protection by the competent authorities of everyone, individually and in association with others, against any violence, threats, retaliation, de facto or de jure adverse discrimination, pressure or any other arbitrary action as a consequence of his or her legitimate exercise of the rights referred to in the present Declaration.”

Photo credit: Muhammad Bayazid’s YouTube