Shukr offers condolences to Shaaban family on Assad's behalf

Baath Party official Fayez Shukr offered condolences Thursday on behalf of President Bashar Assad to the family of slain cameraman Ali Shaaban who died Monday on the Lebanon-Syrian border. In a statement, Shukr also affirmed Assad's keenness on revealing the circumstances of the incident. Shaaban, 30, came under heavy gunfire from the Syrian army Monday while on assignment in the area of Wadi Khaled, north Lebanon, near the border with Syria. Shaaban was accompanied by his colleagues in Al-Jadeed Abdel-Azim Khayyat, also a cameraman, and reporter Hussein Khreiss. Al-Jadeed blamed the Syrian army for the shooting. Shukr also said that he hoped that the media and politicians would wait for the results of the investigation by the Lebanese Army and judiciary before jumping to conclusions and “making irresponsible statements and incitements.” He condemned what he described as the March 14 coalition’s exploitation of the killing, saying that the group was using the incident to attack Syria and “the resistance.”