An activist with the only group reporting on human rights abuses in ISIL’s de facto Syrian capital, Raqqa, was found beheaded in his apartment in southern Turkey along with a friend, the group – called Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently (RBSS) – told Al Jazeera on Friday.
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The RBSS network was created in April 2014 to document Islamic State’s atrocities in Raqqa, a city in northern Syria that the jihadi group has controlled since the start of 2014. Hamadi was also in his early twenties.
Two young men have been found beheaded at their home in Turkey’s Sanliurfa in an attack that has been initially blamed on ISIS, reported Anadolu Agency.
Countries neighboring Syria harbor throngs of Syrians opposed to…
He said that Abdul Qader, who was a teenager, and Hamadi were living together in an apartment in Sanliurfa – a city about 100 miles from the Syrian city of Raqqa, the self-declared capital of the Islamic State – with another unidentified person whose whereabouts are unknown.
Turkey has faced accusations by Syrian and Kurdish activists, along with foreign diplomats, for having a lax policy that allows ISIS members to pass through its border with Syria.
ISIS has claimed responsibility; it’s also celebrating on social media.
“We call for an immediate and thorough investigation by Turkish authorities into these heinous murders and to bring the culprits to justice”, said CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia Program coordinator, Nina Ognianova.
Last month, Raqqa is Being Slaughter Silently won the Committee to Protect Journalists global Press Freedom Award and a few days ago the campaign won America overseas Media award. “These murders show how the grave risks journalists face in Syria have metastasized across the porous border with Turkey”. He left the city when ISIS took complete control and ended up in Turkey.
RBSS regularly publishes information, photos and videos about IS dictates and behaviour in Raqa, from a jihadist ban on private Internet connections to its decision to begin issuing identity cards. “Cameras have been placed to monitor anyone suspected of working for us”, one of the RBSS founders, Abu Mohammed, told CPJ in July.
At the time, the group’s members insisted they would nonetheless continue their work.
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“We must make sacrifices, or else they will rule us for good, and that’s just unacceptable”.
