DRAMATIC footage has captured the moment a group of journalists were targeted and attacked by Syrian regime forces using drones and Russian tanks. The group were visiting a rebel outpost in the war-torn nation when they say were fired upon by a T-72 Russian battle tank in the abandoned countryside town of Al Habit. ‘TRACKED, […]
DRAMATIC footage has captured the moment a group of journalists were targeted and attacked by Syrian regime forces using drones and Russian tanks.
The group were visiting a rebel outpost in the war-torn nation when they say were fired upon by a T-72 Russian battle tank in the abandoned countryside town of Al Habit.
The attack has chilling similarities to the killing of Sunday Times journalist Marie Colvin, who was bombed in 2012 while covering the war.
Sky News war correspondent Alex Crawford revealed: “Our small group of five was tracked, targeted and fired upon by regime forces helped by Russian airpower as they bombarded Al Habit town in the countryside of Idlib.”
The group said the “deliberate” attack used “military drones to pinpoint our location, before launching a series of strikes”.
She explained: “We were spotted by a military drone and then repeatedly shot at with what we believe were 125mm shells probably fired from a T-72 Russian battle tank.”
The group – who were wearing press markings and a medical trauma pack – were caught off guard when a bullet hurtled past and shells began to drop around them.
We were spotted by a military drone and then repeatedly shot at”
Sky News Special Correspondent, Alex Crawford
They made a hasty escape, skidding through the wreckage and dust.
Bilal Abdul Kareem, a civilian and political activists they were with who moved to Syria from New York, took shrapnel to his chest.
“The military drone hovered above us and we could hear the sound of an aircraft homing in,” Crawford said.
“As we retreated to leave the area, the targeting of us continued.
“Even when we withdrew to the nearby town, Khan Shaykhun, some 10km away, the shelling followed us there and continued.”
Crawford also described witnessing deliberate attacks on civilians “with the intention of killing, maiming or just forcing them to flee”.
“We saw large-scale indiscriminate bombing and shelling by the regime … on vast residential areas,” she said.
The correspondent alleged that deliberate attacks on civilian populations is viewed as an international war crime.
Similarly, she said the intentional targeting of journalists is also a breach of international standards.
Sunday Times journalist Marie Colvin was killed by the Syrian regime while covering the brutal conflict.
Colvin, 56, was killed during a rocket attack in Homs seven years ago in 2012.
The veteran journalist had exposed the massacres of civilians in the country at the hands of Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad.
A lawsuit filed by Colvin’s family claimed Syrian intelligence officials intercepted her broadcast signals to find her exact location.
“A conspiracy to assassinate journalists”
Lawyers representing family of Marie Colvin
Lawyers representing her relatives have accused the regime of President Bashar al-Assad of a “conspiracy to assassinate journalists”.
At the time, the lawyer leading the investigation, Scott, Gilmore, said: “Marie Colvin was killed for exposing the Assad regime’s slaughter of innocent civilians to the world.
“The regime wanted to wage a war without witness against the democratic opposition.
“To do that they needed to neutralise the media.”
Crawford described the attacks as “clear violations” of standards of operation in a battle zone.
Violence has escalated in the area of Idlib in recent weeks, with officials saying an estimated 700,000 people have been forced to flee their homes.
The province of Idlib is home to the last rebel outpost in Syria.
The town of Al Habit is in the middle of a buffer zone established after a ceasefire was brokered by Russia and Turkey last year.
A nine-mile demilitarised zone between rebel and regime lines was declared.
However, it appears this has been breached with Turkey’s defence minister accusing the Syrian regime of violating that ceasefire.
Assad has focused on the area as he fights to regain control of the country in the face of rebel forces.
The main rebel group now in control in Idlib is Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), designated as a terror organisation by the UK and the US.
Increasing violence had been justified by Assad’s regime as necessary to fight terrorists.
However, civilian services and outlets such as hospitals, schools and markets appear to be targeted.
Crawford said: “We saw whole towns emptied of civilians as they’ve scrambled to get to safety in the face of an unceasing regime air assault.
“More than three million are now inside Idlib Governorate, having fled other fighting areas such as Aleppo, swelling the population to more than double its usual size.
“More and more civilians are being corralled into an increasingly small area of Idlib.”
Officials are warning of an increased humanitarian disaster if the Syrian leader is not stopped.
We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online news team? Email us at tips@the-sun.co.uk or call 0207 782 4368 . You can WhatsApp us on 07810 791 502. We pay for videos too. Click here to upload yours.
