EXCLUSIVE: Kurdistan 24 captures moment of IS car bomb attack in Raqqa
Two journalists including a Kurdistan 24 correspondent and cameraman were injured on Saturday in a car bomb attack by an Islamic State (IS) suicide bomber.
RAQQA, Syria (Kurdistan 24) – Two journalists including a Kurdistan 24 correspondent and cameraman were injured on Wednesday in a car bomb attack by an Islamic State (IS) suicide bomber while covering the US-backed operation to retake the city of Raqqa in northern Syria.
Redwan Bezar, a Kurdistan 24 correspondent embedded with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), said the car bomb targeted a building in the Al-Mashlab neighborhood in the east side of the city where they were working.
“I had some bruises on my face, and my arm was wounded, while my friend, Alaa Sadoun, a correspondent for SMART news agency, was injured in his leg,” Bezar said.
Bezar explained the moment of the explosion saying the blast was preceded by shooting.
“While I was moving toward the balcony, I was suddenly thrown up and then fell down, the room turned dark and gloomy and filled with black smoke, and cement pieces and dust were scattered from the walls and ceiling,” he said.
“I stayed for a moment and then checked my body. I felt pain in my arms and face, and then I crawled on the floor, calling my friend Alaa,” Bezar said.
An SDF fighter then came and helped the wounded journalists sending them to Kobani, a Syrian Kurdish-held town on the border with Turkey.
The journalists embedded with the SDF had already been targeted by IS in February when the fighting was still in the northern and western countryside of Raqqa.
The operation in Raqqa city started in June by the SDF, of which the Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) form a key component, with the support of the US-led anti-IS coalition.
In an online statement this week, the SDF said they liberated seven neighborhoods in the city so far.
Editing by Karzan Sulaivany