Pro-regime journalist assassinated

A Syrian journalist working for a government newspaper was killed in a south Damascus neighbourhood on Tuesday, state television announced.

A Syrian journalist working for a government newspaper was killed in a south Damascus neighbourhood on Tuesday, state television announced.

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"An armed terrorist group assassinated the journalist Naji Assaad in the Tadamun district of Damascus as he was on his way to the Tishreen newspaper," the broadcaster said.

A retired journalist in his sixties, Assaad contributed articles to Tishreen, the last of which was published on Monday, an official at the paper said.

The killing marked the second of a journalist in Tadamun in less than a fortnight. The neighbourhood has been plagued by intermittent battles between rebels and government forces since mid-summer.