The so-called opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Thursday that Yasser Faisal al-Jumaili was shot dead at a rebel checkpoint in the northwestern province of Idlib on Wednesday.

Soazig Dollet of the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders press advocacy group confirmed al-Jumaili was killed in Idlib, adding that his body was taken to Turkey in order to be sent home later. Dollet said she doesn't know how al-Jumaili was killed.

The Committee to Protect Journalists said that Syria was the most dangerous country in the world for journalists in 2012. According to the group, 28 reporters were killed in that year alone.

Those who lost their lives since the crisis began in March 2011 include award-winning French TV reporter Gilles Jacquier, photographer Remi Ochlik and Britain's Sunday Times correspondent Marie Colvin. Also, Anthony Shadid, a correspondent for The New York Times, died after an apparent asthma attack while on assignment in Syria.

In late October, a Syrian journalist working for Al-Arabiya TV was shot dead in the northern province of Aleppo. He was believed to have been killed by extremist militantss who he had sharply criticized before his death.

Dollet said al-Jumaili came from the Iraqi city of Fallujah.

Observatory director Rami Abdurrahman and Dollet told The Associated Press that al-Jumaili worked in the past for Al-Jazeera TV and Reuters. They did know say who al-Jumaili was working for during his last trip.

Abdurrahman said the gunmen who killed al-Jumaili were believed to be members of al-Qaida's Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). He said they were foreign fighters.

Abdurrahman said the shooting is believed to have taken place between the towns of Saraqib and Maaret Musreen, but did not know exactly where it happened. "They stopped him at the checkpoint and opened fire immediately without asking any questions," he said.

BA/BA