Reporters Without Borders has learned that at least three citizen-journalists were among the approximately 50 detainees that the group called Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) massacred on 6 January before withdrawing from the Qadi Asqar district of Aleppo.
The three known citizen-journalists killed in the massacre were Maher Hasroumi, Amin Abu Ahmad and Sultan Al-Shami. Employed by Shada al Hurriya TV, they and two other colleagues, Abu Younes and Taim Shami were abducted when ISIS attacked the TV station on 26 December.
RWB condemns the massacre with the utmost energy and is appalled by the way ISIS executed its own detainees as it withdrew in the face of an offensive launched against it by other rebel groups. Other detainees were freed.
The massacre was confirmed by the citizen-journalist Milad Al-Shibahi, a newly-freed ISIS detainee, in a video posted on YouTube on 7 January. In the video, Shibahi describes the appalling conditions in which ISIS held its hostages.