At 3:20 p.m. on Thursday, December 19th, 2024, two journalists, including a 28-year-old female journalist, were killed, and a driver was injured as a result of a drone strike on a civilian car on the road between Tishreen Dam and the town of Sareen near Qarqozak Bridge south of Kobani in the Aleppo governorate of Syria. The strike was allegedly carried out by the Turkish military.

Hawar News correspondent, a young woman, Cihan Muhammed Nesin Belkin, and fellow journalist, Nazim Dashtan, died in a drone strike that took place near Qarqozak Bridge. Their driver, Aziz Hajj Bouzan, was seriously injured.

In their report, Hawar News included photos of the pair. Nazim, a middle-aged man with a bold head and black mustache, was standing next to the camera operating equipment overlooking a city. He was smiling at the camera and wearing a grey t-shirt. Cihan was pictured holding a camera as she looked back at the camera and smiled brightly. In the photo, she was located rurally, with fields and a dirt track behind her. She was a young woman with long dark hair and a wide smile.

A post on Facebook by Rojava TV contained a touching tribute to Cihan. Born in 1996, Cihan had grown up in the city of Midiyad before moving to Amed to study law in 2013. During her time at the Faculty of Law, she distributed newspapers for Ozkur Kundem and Azadiya Welat. Next, Cihan moved to Rojava and took up her role at Hawar News Agency. Her vital work during the liberation of Raqqa shone a light on the role the Women’s Protection Units played in the tumultuous period. Her work continued to advocate for the rights of women, with dozens of reports and files on Turkish policy in the region.

Later on, Cihan covered the campaigns launched against the extremist group ISIS and the situation that unfolded in the Tabqa canton, where many displaced people had moved. With increased escalation in Manbij and south of Kobani, Cihan continued to bravely report on the incidents that took place in the region. It was while doing this with Nazim that she was killed. A photo of Cihan smiling was included along with her words:

“What made me persevere in my work is that we are not alone; there is an entire people standing behind us with ambitions and hopes.

There is a just and right cause, and it is a source of pride for everyone to shed light on this cause and these people.

During my work in North and East Syria, I got to know many wonderful people. The soil of Rojava is of great value to me.

To my dear colleagues, we must realize the reality of what is happening on the ground.”

Ronahi TV covered the incident and discussed how their friends Nazim and Cihan had appeared on their channel in the days prior to discuss the ongoing conflict. Ronahi also included two different photos of the pair. Nazim was candidly holding a camera mid-shot whilst wearing a warm hat and jacket. Cihan was broadly smiling directly at the camera whilst wearing a chequered shirt and holding her camera.

Hawar News reported that the drone strike took place to the south of Kobani. The incident took place at exactly 15:20 as the pair were in a car on the road between Tishreen Dam and Sareen. Since December 8th, the pair had been covering the incidents surrounding the Tishrin Dam and the Qarqozak Bridge.

SOHR noted that the incident came as tensions were escalating in northern and eastern Syria. They also voiced their concerns over the continued attacks that impacted journalists and media professionals. At the time of the incident, 213 drone strikes had been carried out by the Turkish air force in the ‘Autonomous Administration’, killing 23 civilians and injuring 80. Roj News added to this, stating that “Human rights organisations have documented hundreds of violations committed by Turkey against journalists in Kurdish areas.”

ANF News, Roj News, SOHR, Hawar News, VDC News, Foxpress on Facebook unanimously declared that the belligerent was the Turkish military. As a result of the extensive coverage in the local media of this incident, it has been deemed to be “fair.”