Russia’s RT says correspondent killed in Syria
MOSCOW – Agence France-Presse
“RT mourns the loss of its correspondent Khaled al-Khatib, who was killed on Sunday July 30 as he was covering the Syrian army’s operation against the terrorist group IS around Sukhna in the eastern parts of Homs province,” the channel wrote in an online announcement in Arabic.
“Our correspondent in central Syria sustained a fatal wound when a shell fired by ISIL terrorists hit a Syrian army position while he was on a field assignment riddled with danger in al-Baghaliya in rural Homs province.” Syrian government troops entered Sukhna, the last ISIL stronghold in the country’s Homs province, on July 28 after jihadists began withdrawing, a monitor said.
The town, some 70 kilometers northeast of the famed ancient city of Palmyra, is the last town on the road to the eastern city of Deir Ezzor, where a government garrison has held out under ISIL siege since early 2015.
Since May, Syria’s army has been conducting a broad military campaign with Russian support to recapture the vast desert that separates the capital Damascus from Deir Ezzor and other towns along the Euphrates Valley.