Al Jazeera correspondent dies in Syria

Al Jazeera Media Network has announced the death of its Arabic correspondent in Syria, Mahran Al Deeri, while covering battles in the city of al-Sheikh Maskin in rural Deraa.

According to his family members, Al Deeri died on Wednesday while taking cover from government fire as his car hit the vehicle of rebel fighters after he turned off his headlights to avoid being targeted.

This is the same area where three other journalists from the Orient Network were targeted and killed three days ago.

Al Jazeera’s Acting Director General, Mostefa Souag said: “Our martyred colleague Mahran Al Deeri has worked with aljazeera.net for over a year and was known for his courage, bravery and professional coverage of the Syrian revolution in the area of Deraa and its suburbs.”

“Targeting journalists will not deter us from reporting the truth which we have been committed to for over 18 years,” Souag said, adding: “Throughout our years of coverage we have lost many colleagues on this mission but our brave journalists are committed to this despite the constant dangers and challenges.”

Al Deeri hailed from al-Sheikh Maskin in Deraa where he was born in 1983 and excelled in studies.

He studied media at Damascus University and graduated in 2008. After his studies he worked for SANA, the government news agency, which he left shortly after the start of the revolution.

He was married and had two children.

Because of the constant shelling of Deraa by government forces, he fled temporarily to Jordan, but he rejected the fate of a refugee and returned to Deraa shortly afterwards to do independent journalism.

Al Deeri came to aljazeera.net (Al Jazeera Arabic’s website) as a freelancer in October 2013 to report from the area of Houran.

“He was one of the most competent correspondents,” one of his colleagues at aljazeera.net said.