A farewell to Syrian activist Naji al-Jerf killed in Turkey's s.eastern city of Gaziantep

Family and friends gave a tearful farewell to Naji al-Jerf, a Syrian activist and journalist known for his opposition to Daesh brutality in Syria before his death in the southeastern city of Gaziantep on Sunday.

A farewell to Syrian activist Naji al-Jerf killed in Turkey's s.eastern city of Gaziantep

A funeral was held on Monday in the city that al-Jerf took shelter in like millions of others displaced by violent conflict in Syria. He was walking on the street when a gunman or gunmen approaching behind shot him in the head. Though the perpetrator or perpetrators were not caught and no one claimed responsibility for the murder yet, Daesh remains the main suspect in the killing. The militant group had already claimed responsibility for murder of two Syrian activists in October in southeastern Turkey for their work to shed light on the atrocities of Daesh in Syria's Raqqa.

The flag of the Free Syrian Army of rebels fighting the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad regime since the 2011 uprising was draped over the coffin of al-Jerf, who would have left for France tomorrow where he was granted asylum.

Amid the wails of his wife Boshra and his daughters Yam and Emsa, al-Jerf was buried at Yeşilkent cemetery, hundreds of kilometers away from the 37-years-old activist's hometown.

Al-Jerf, who published a pro-rebel magazine, was behind a documentary about Daesh and was subject of several threats, according to his friends quoted by Turkish media. He reportedly survived two attempts to blow up his car and was preparing a second documentary about Daesh, which controls a large swathe of land in Northern Syria near the Turkish-Syrian border.

Burhan Nassif, an acquaintance of al-Jerf, told reporters at the funeral that the slain activist wanted to keep his family safe after "countless threats," and decided to relocate to France. "He was a martyr who died for the freedom of Syria," Nassif said.

Source: Daily Sabah

WARNING: Comments that contain insults, swearing, offensive sentences or allusions, attacks on beliefs, are not written with spelling rules, do not use Turkish characters and are written in capital letters are not approved.