White Helmets Rescuers Shot Dead In Syria (Video)

Hero White Helmets rescuer who wept as he pulled baby girl from Syrian rubble in footage that reduced BBC newsreader to tears is shot dead alongside six colleagues....
The White Helmets rescuer, who last year pulled a baby girl from the wreckage of an airstrike in a dramatic scene that brought a BBC news presenter to tears, is among seven volunteers who have been shot dead in Syria.

Abu Kifah made headlines in October after footage of him saving month-old Wahida Ma'artouk was broadcast on television.

The moment was so powerful that journalist Kate Silverton was overcome with emotion live on air.
Today the White Helmets, also known as the Syrian Civil Defence, confirmed that seven of its volunteers had been killed in cold blood by unidentified gunmen who attacked their office in the northwestern town of Sarmin in the early hours of this morning.

Images of the moments the bodies were discovered showed the corpses of the uniformed workers covered in blood and surrounded by grieving colleagues clasping their heads in their hands.

No one has immediately claimed responsibility for the rare attack but it comes amid tension in the area.

Sarmin is in Idlib province, which witnessed clashes recently between al-Qaida-linked fighters and members of the ultraconservative Ahrar al-Sham group that ended with al-Qaida capturing much of the region.

The al-Qaida-linked Hay'at Tahrir al Sham - Arabic for Levant Liberation Committee, and also known as HTS - said over the past weeks that its members have discovered sleepers cells of the Islamic State group who were planning an attack.

Al-Qaida's affiliate, which used by to be known as the Nusra Front, has fought deadly battles with IS over the past years.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the seven were killed after being shot in the head, adding that the killings were discovered when volunteers from the White Helmets arrived to start a shift and found the bodies of their colleagues.

The attackers then fled the scene with two vans, helmets and walkie talkies.

The White Helmets have called on all Syrian checkpoints in the north of the country to detain any vehicle emblazoned with the group's logo.
Matiah Jallal, a close friend and colleague of Abu Kifah, told MailOnline: 'It is hard for me to describe what I feel now. The whole town is mourning Abu Kifah and his colleagues.'

His murder is all the more tragic as he had fathered a child himself within the past year. At the time of rescuing Wahida Maatouk, he had told MailOnline how much he had wanted a child.

His wife is understood to be in a state of shock and with her husband's relatives.

Khaled Khatib, a media officer with the White Helmets who knew Abu Kifah before his murder, confirmed the deaths to MailOnline and said: 'Abu Kifah was a tailor before the revolution began in 2011 and joined the White Helmets due to the incessant and brutal attacks on civilians.'

The bodies of the men have since been buried in a funeral service in Sarmin.

A large procession of mainly men, some wearing White Helmets, carried the dead - many mourners were seen breaking down in tears.

The organisation, which concentrates on urban search and rescue in response to bombing, has seen more than 150 of its members killed since its formation in 2014.

see more photos below..