Cameraman Killed as Al-Jadeed Crew Comes Under Gunfire from Syria
إقرأ هذا الخبر بالعربية
Al-Jadeed TV cameraman Ali Shaaban was killed on Monday in the northern border area of Wadi Khaled when he and two of his colleagues came under gunfire from the Syrian side of the border.
Reporter Hussein Khreis and cameraman Abed Khayyat managed to escape unharmed.
The TV network said the crew was in the area with the aim of filming a report about the situation there.
Shaaban was rushed to Al-Salam Hospital in al-Qbayyat where he later died of his wounds.
Khreis confirmed that he and his colleagues came under gunfire from the Syrian side of the border and that they were inside Lebanese territory.
Al-Jadeed accused the Syrian army of the deadly shooting, saying it opened fire at its team which was on the Lebanese side of the border.
"Ali Shaaban became a martyr after the Syrian army opened fire on the al-Jadeed car," the channel said.
Khreis said the shooting took place even though the television team had "greeted the Syrian forces guarding the border."
“We were filming the Syrian areas, but we were in Lebanese territory, and we chatted with the Syrian brothers (border guards) and continued our trip,” said Khreis.
“We started to crawl but they opened heavy gunfire at the car … Bullets were raining down,” Khreis added.
“We watched cameraman Ali Shaaban dying in the car and we were not able to pull him out,” he said.
Khreis said Lebanese security forces did not warn them that they were entering a “danger zone.”
"If you see the car you would think it was in a war zone," Khreis said on al-Jadeed. "It is completely destroyed from the bullets."
He said they waited for more than two hours for the army and some residents to come and pull them out to safety.
"I ask forgiveness from Ali's family because I couldn't do anything for him," he said, breaking into tears.
Lebanese security officials told The Associated Press that a bullet pierced the chest of the 32-year-old Shaaban.
Gunfire came from the nearby Syrian village of Armouta, the officials said.
NBN television quoted a Syrian source as saying that Syrian authorities were investigating the circumstances surrounding the shooting.
Meanwhile, Syria’s state-run news agency SANA quoted a “media source” as saying that al-Jadeed’s crew were “in a border area witnessing frequent and daily infiltration attempts by armed men, as well as shootings by armed terrorist groups against the checkpoints of the border guards inside Syrian territory.”
The source said “a Syrian border guard checkpoint in the aforementioned area came under heavy gunfire from armed terrorist groups trying to infiltrate the border, apparently during the presence of al-Jadeed TV’s crew in the area.”
“Border guards fired back at the source of gunfire,” the media source told SANA, extending his condolences to Shaaban’s family, employer and colleagues.
09 April 2012, 17:02
02
Wars are aweful...... Why they do not shoot into Jordan or Turkey? Because as Ziad Ra2hbani will say: "2haytna wati". RIP.
09 April 2012, 17:09
00
He was obviously a Salafi terrorist and the heroic Syrian army was only defending itself.
09 April 2012, 18:02
03
may he rest in peace, and hopefully we will not see remarks from the usual thugs here.
09 April 2012, 18:12
03
So sad.
Now they have killed more at the border with Syria ( by the syrian army) than israel has killed in south last years.
The Lebanese state ( if we had any) should act, and file a complaint about these violations. Yes, we can stay neutral in the conflict in Syria, but this is a violation of the Lebanese indepence and an agression of its citizens. Which means we are entitled to filing a complaint to the UN.
09 April 2012, 18:15
00
Open your eyes.
The Syrian army is not guarding.
As for the Lebanese army, do not blame them. Stop being naive. Syria has no friend. No ally.
09 April 2012, 18:36
00
More Lebanese are killed by the Syrian government every week and the Lebanese government doesn't even file a complaint to the UN for violations of sovereignty or at least complain to the Syrian regime.
09 April 2012, 19:18
21
so sad and so unacceptable, The Syrian soldiers who did that should be brought to justice. the man is a peaceful cameraman not a terrorist. RIP
09 April 2012, 19:21
00
our prime minister called the syrians and told them to catch the killers , dont worry
09 April 2012, 19:47
13
Haraam...only 32 years old. He had his whole life in front of him. Our prayers and condolences to the poor family. Assad must GO!
09 April 2012, 19:52
00
RIP. I would like to see what the Syrian government says about this. You can't easily identify which "army" did the shooting. We've seen lots of footage of the peaceful terrorist civilian unarmed rebels wearing army fatigues and so I hope al-Jadeed were sure of their claims before making such conclusions.
09 April 2012, 19:53
00
may he rest in peace another victim of their hatred towards freedom
09 April 2012, 20:11
00
Typical, now the Syrians are accusing the New TV crew of entering Syria.
09 April 2012, 20:15
00
This is so sad, RIP, our gov. are bunch of wankers, I guess they will neutralize themselves as well against such criminal act.
09 April 2012, 21:24
00
Any comment Flim thrower?
As for you keserweneh,stop faking it.
Someone like who already forgot the thousands of lebanese slaughtered on the hands of your ally and master regime of Assad would not feel sorry for a murdered journalist.
Traitor.
BTW wayno el general Speedy gonzales taba3koun?
And Hassouna????
What if it was israel????
09 April 2012, 22:25
00
The disgusting OTV news tonight tried it's hardest to give the Syrians plenty excuses for murdering the Cameraman, shades of Aoun's reaction to the murder of Cpt. Samer Hanna.
10 April 2012, 06:21
00
Akhwat shanay must take an Army copter and wipe out the Syrian checkpoint that destroyed the cameraman car with bullet then claim that the Leb Army post came under attack by terrorists and they returned the fire in self defense.
