Prosecutor, judge killed in northwest Syria

BEIRUT - The Associated Press

Members of the Free Syrian Army raise their weapons during a patrol in Idlib in northwestern Syria. AFP photo

Syria's state-run news agency reports that gunmen have assassinated a senior prosecutor and a judge in a restive northwestern province.

SANA says gunmen opened fire Sunday morning on a car carrying Idlib provincial state prosecutor Nidal Ghazal and judge Mohammed Ziadeh. The agency says the two were killed instantly along with their driver.

Syrian rebels control parts of Idlib province, which borders Turkey. It has been one of the regions hardest hit by a government crackdown on an uprising against President Bashar Assad's regime.

The uprising began in March as a peaceful protest but has grown into a bloody insurgency.

The unrest and the resulting crackdown left more than 5,400 people dead last year alone, according to the U.N.