BEIRUT, January 4 (RIA Novosti) - A correspondent of Russia’s Arab-language satellite TV channel Rusiya Al-Yaum (Russia Today), Kamil Sakr, has received a gunshot wound in a suburb of Syrian capital Damascus, the channel has reported on its website.
“On Thursday morning, a group of journalists and I were heading to Damascus suburb Darayya, where the Syrian Army is conducting active combat operations to establish control of the locality,” Sakr told Rusiya Al-Yaum by phone. “We came under intense fire on one of the town streets.”
Sakr also said a Syrian TV operator was slightly wounded in Darayya, located a few miles to the southwest of Damascus.
At least 60,000 people have been killed in Syria’s conflict since March 2011, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay has said citing new analysis released on Wednesday by the United Nations.
Russia has faced heavy international criticism over its refusal to back UN sanctions against Syria, its last ally in the Arab world, over what it called the pro-rebel bias of the proposed resolutions.
But Moscow has denied it is backing Assad and says it is concerned that the Syrian president’s enforced departure would only worsen the conflict.
