7 White Helmets rescue volunteers shot dead

IDLIB: Unidentified assailants shot dead seven members of Syria’s White Helmets rescue service early on Saturday during a raid on their base in a rebel-held northwestern town, the group said.

The attackers struck in the town of Sarmin, nine kilometres east of the city of Idlib, that is controlled by the Hayat Tahrir al Sham rebel alliance.

“The civil defence centre in Sarmin was the target of an armed attack by unknown assailants in which seven volunteers were killed,” the White Helmets said in statement.

“Two minibuses, some helmets and walkie-talkies stolen.”

It was not immediately clear whether the motives for the raid were political or purely criminal.

The Syrian Observatory for Human white were Rights said the seven volunteers had all been killed by bullets to the head.

“Colleagues came in the morning for the change of shift and found them dead,” its director, Rami Abdel Rahman, said.

The White Helmets emerged in 2013, working to rescue civilians in rebel-held areas.

They have since gained international renown for their daring rescues, often filmed and circulated on social media, and were nominated for the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize.

Although they work exclusively in rebel-held areas, they insist they are non-partisan.

Their detractors, including President Bashar al Assad’s government and his ally Russia, accuse them of being tools of their international donors.

A member of the Syrian civil defence volunteers, also known as the White Helmets, mourns as colleagues bury his fellow comrades during a funeral in Sarmin.