Syrian regime shrapnel kills AA freelancer in Daraya

By Hatice Kesgin

KILIS, Turkey

Anadolu Agency’s Syrian freelancer Majid Dirani has been killed by Syrian regime forces in Daraya, a suburb of Damascus in the war-torn country, the organization’s Syria correspondent confirmed.

According to Anadolu Agency’s Syria correspondent Mohammed Misto, who was in Turkey’s Syrian border province of Kilis at the time he learnt about Dirani’s death, fierce clashes have been on going between Bashar al-Assad regime forces and Free Syrian Army in eastern and western fronts of Daraya since beginning of January.

“Unfortunately, Majid has lost his life when he got hit by shrapnel pieces from regime tanks Friday afternoon while trying to take pictures of mortar shelling and scouting planes flying over the area,” Misto said.

“He started his bachelors of computer engineering program at the Damascus University in 2011. However, he quit his education due to the Syrian civil war,” he added.

During the peace demonstrations against the Assad regime, Majid began taking photographs, which he would later post on his social platforms. Since last December, he was working with Anadolu Agency as a freelancer.

“We used to call him our ‘eyes in Daraya’,” Misto said.

Last October, Anadolu Agency reporter Salih Mahmoud Leyla and Anadolu Agency freelancer Vesim el Adil were also killed in two different attacks near Aleppo.

According to the UN, more than 400,000 Syrians live in besieged areas with little or no access to basic supplies amid a civil war that has claimed more than 250,000 lives.