GAZIANTEP, TURKEY – If terrorists don’t like bad news coverage they can always shoot those responsible for it – and they do!
Terrorists are a odd bunch sometimes. If, as US terrorism scholar Brian Jenkins has said, they want a lot of people watching, it stands to reason that they relish news coverage, no? If you want to scare the bejeezus out of people and show yourselves to be tough characters, what better way than to flood their TV and computer screens with evidence of your deeds?
But terrorists seem to have a sensitive side as well – sensitive to less than stellar support of their cause. Some don’t like it when journalists write up stories which do not flatter their organisation. And sometimes they kill those same journalists.
On this day in 2016
ISIS terrorists claimed the shooting of Syrian TV presenter Mohammed Zahir al-Sherqat in Gaziantep, Turkey, near the border with Syria. He was struck in the neck while out walking and died a few days later.
The situation is very bad, we don’t feel safe. We know there are a lot of sleeper [ISIL] cells in Turkey and elsewhere but it is not easy to catch them.
Barry Abulattif, friend of the deceased
Then again, can ANYONE say or write anything about ISIS that does not show it to be a barbarous bunch of terrorists? Probably not.
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