Rebels Attack Syrian TV Station, Kill Seven Workers

Pro-Regime Statement Attacked Hours After Broadcast of Assad Speech

Just hours after Syrian President Bashar Assad’s statement on the nation being in a “real state of war” was broadcast, Syria’s al-Ikhbariya TV station was in ruins. The newsroom burnt, the walls sprayed with bullets and blood, and at least seven employees killed.

The grisly scene was just one of many atrocities seen already in Syria’s nascent civil war, this time the result of a rebel faction storming the station overnight on accusations of being pro-regime.

Employees of the station say that several people were wounded in addition to the slain and that a number of the guards working for the station were kidnapped during the attack.

Syria’s information ministry condemned it as a “massacre against the freedom of the press.” Rebel commanders denied responsibility, saying it was unrelated to their ongoing civil war.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.