The Kurdish journalist Agid Roj was killed on Saturday in a Turkish air strike near the Tishreen dam, northeast of Manbij (Minbîc). Roj had been reporting on the escalating tensions between Turkish and Kurdish forces in Kurdish-controlled areas in northern Syria. Local sources confirmed that he was killed while reporting on developments in the region. Originally from Afrin (Efrîn) north of Aleppo, Roj’s death highlights the increasing risks faced by journalists in conflict zones.
For more than two months, Turkish forces and their allied Syrian National Army (SNA) factions have been focusing their attacks near the Tishreen Dam, a critical piece of infrastructure that provides electricity and water to thousands of people in the region. Though Turkey claims that its operations are targeting Kurdish armed groups, increasingly, civilians and journalists are being killed in these attacks.
Agid Roj was known for his work with the local media, focusing on human rights violations, displacement and military escalation. His killing has sparked widespread condemnation from press freedom organisations and local activists, who accuse Turkey of deliberately targeting journalists and civilians in the region. A colleague of Roj’s, speaking anonymously to North Press, described him as “a brave journalist who risked his life to report the truth about the suffering of people in northern Syria”, adding, “He was not armed. He was not a fighter. He was simply doing his job.”
Roj’s killing is part of a serious pattern of Turkey targeting attacks on Kurdish journalists. On 23 August, Sterk TV reporters Hêro Bahadîn and Gulistan Tara were killed when a Turkish drone struck their vehicle near Sulaymaniyah in Iraqi Kurdistan. Earlier, on 11 July, Çira TV journalist Murad Mirza was killed in a targeted air strike in Sinjar (Şengal) in Iraq. In Syria, another deadly attack took place on 19 December in Manbij, killing Nazım Daştan and Cîhan Bilgin, who were covering clashes between Ankara-backed militias and US-backed Kurdish forces. Most recently, Kurdish journalist Aziz Köylüoğlu was killed in the Ranya district of Sulaymaniyah (Silêmanî), Iraqi Kurdistan, on 27 January 2025.
The Kurdish-led Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) strongly condemned the attack and called on the international community to take immediate action to protect journalists and civilians from the ongoing hostilities.
The Media Centre of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) issued a statement following Roj’s death, pointing to the role of journalists in exposing the reality of the conflict. “For more than two months, our forces and our people have demonstrated historic resistance and successfully repelled all the attacks of the occupation [Turkey],” they said. The SDF also stressed that Roj, who had been covering civilian protests at the Tishreen Dam, was deliberately targeted in the air strike, and that journalists like him play a crucial role in documenting and countering these attacks. “Journalists like Nazim, Cîhan and Agid have served as the eyes of our people,” the statement continued, “and they have played an important role in defeating the occupation”.
The killing of Agid Roj highlights the need for greater protection of media workers and the importance of ensuring that journalists can continue to report freely and safely in northern Syria.
