A missile fired by government forces that was aimed at a volunteer White Helmets member’s truck on Tuesday in northern Syria killed him, according to rescuers and a monitor.
According to a tweet from the group, the first responder died “while conducting inspections in areas that had been targeted by artillery shelling from regime forces.”
West of Aleppo, in southeast Atarib, Abdul Basset Ahmed Abdel-Khalek “fell victim to a missile deliberately aimed at the rescue team’s car,” according to the report.
The volunteer was killed by a “guided missile fired by regime forces,” according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which has sources all around Syria.
In the rebel-held regions of north and northwest Syria, which were severely damaged by a powerful earthquake in February that had its epicentre in southern Turkey, more than four million people reside.
The Observatory reported that 243 people, including 16 civilians, have died in the region since the year’s beginning despite a ceasefire that was agreed by Russia and Turkey in response to a regime onslaught in March 2020.
Syria’s war started in 2011 when anti-government rallies were brutally put down.
Later, it developed into a complicated struggle involving jihadists and outside forces, which has resulted in more than 500,000 deaths and millions of displaced people.
The White Helmets rescuers were able to assist victims of the February earthquake that killed tens of thousands of lives in Turkey and Syria by drawing on their experience from the Syrian war.
