(Corrects after Syrian state media updates that cameraman, previously thought dead, is alive)
DAMASCUS (Reuters) -A Syrian reporter and two Syrian soldiers were killed on Wednesday by an explosive device in the country’s southern Deraa governorate, Syrian state media said in a statement.
An earlier statement said that a cameraman from Syrian state television had also been killed but an update by Syrian state media said he was alive after having been rescued by local villagers.
Firas al-Ahmad, a reporter for Damascus-based outlet Sama TV, was killed alongside the two Syrian troops by a roadside bomb as they were heading back from al-Chiyah in Deraa, the update said.
Syria is ranked 175 out of 180 on Reporters Without Borders’ press freedom index, which has documented more than 270 Syrian journalists killed since the country’s conflict began in 2011.
(Reporting by Jana Choukeir and Laila Bassam, Writing by Clauda Tanios; Editing by Toby Chopra)
