Raed Fares, a radio host who mocked Assad, and his colleague Hammoud al-Juneid were shot dead in Syria

BEIRUT – US and British officials have lamented the death of a Syrian anti-government activist and radio host seen as a "symbol" of the uprising, who was shot dead with colleagues by unidentified gunmen in an area held by rebels in the northwest of the country, where Saturday's government strikes killed at least five people in violation of a ceasefire.

Dozens of friends of Raed Fares and Hammoud al-Juneid held a vigil on Saturday in their hometown of Kafranbel, Idlib province, while protests dispersed in areas controlled by the government. opposition condemned their assassination and accused radical Islamists, of which Fares was a sharp critic.

Fares drew the world's attention to the war in Syria and Kafranbel, with its humorous English-language protest banners that criticized his government and the international community's response to the conflict. He also strongly criticized Islamist militants who took control of the conflict and who now control Idlib and his hometown.

In 2013, Fares released a satirical video on YouTube depicting cavemen repeatedly killed by men representing the Syrian government as men carrying US and EU flags went unnoticed. "This is how the international community reacted to the genocide committed by Assad against the Syrian people," Fares wrote.

That same year, Fares founded the local channel Fresh Radio to report on the conflict. It was funded by the United States until Washington cut the finances of the Syrian opposition. Fares warned that the move would hurt the moderates and fuel more extremism.

In a Washington Post article released earlier this year, Fares urged the United States to resume financial support for Fresh Radio, saying "terrorist groups (and the regime) see us as a direct threat."

Fares and al-Juneid were buried Friday after a grand silent procession where their bodies were hoisted on the shoulders of the mourners, then carried in open-backed wagons, wrapped in the flag of the Syrian revolution.

They "have never hesitated to tell the truth and defend the initial values ​​of the revolution," said Jim Jeffrey and Joel Rayburn, heads of the US State Department responsible for politics in Syria. Officials described them in a statement as "patriots" who documented the "crimes" of the Syrian government.

Al-Juneid was a cameraman who worked with Fares.

The British envoy to Syria, Martin Longden, described their assassination as "a loss for Syria and its future".

Fares survived an earlier assassination attempt and was imprisoned by prominent Islamist militants in Idlib.

"He was really the mainstay of the radio, and we owe him the responsibility to continue the project he launched," said Fares Barakat, a Fares colleague at Radio Fresh.

According to Syrian observers for human rights and civil defense in Idlib, government artillery pounded an opposition-controlled city, striking students as they left their homes. school and at least three women and two children. The bombing of Jarjanaz, east of Kafarnbel, is in violation of a ceasefire agreement in effect in Idlib since September. The Observatory said two others had also been killed during the bombing.

A series of assassinations and targeted shootings inside Idlib, at the hands of the rebels, has left more than 390 dead since April, according to the UK-based Observatory.

Separately, intense fighting continued between Islamic State militants and the US-led coalition and its partners on the ground in Deir el-Zour province in south-eastern Syria. . The US-led coalition called the fighting "brutal" and accused the IS of using the civilian population as cover.

Omar Abu Leila, an observer from Deir el-Zour based in Europe, said the heavy fighting had displaced dozens of civilians who had fled while IS militants were expanding their areas of operations, chasing thus the Syrian democratic forces supported by the United States.

The Observatory said the militants pushed themselves out of Hajin, their main stronghold in their last pocket near the Iraqi border.

The US-led offensive against IS in eastern Syria began in September.

Also on Saturday, under an agreement between Russia and Turkey, the Syrian government and the armed opposition exchanged prisoners at a border crossing in northern Syria, announced Turkey and l & # 39; Observatory.

The Turkish Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the Syrian government and armed opposition groups "mutually and simultaneously" released an undetermined number of people. The exchange was part of a "pilot project" as part of the Astana process supported by Russia, Turkey and Iran aimed at releasing detainees, kidnappings, body exchanges and the search for missing persons.

The United Nations also participated along with the three guarantors of Astana. The population was released Saturday at the Abu Zindeyn border crossing in northern Syria.

The Syrian state media announced the release of nine men and one woman, showing them in a bus in northern Syria, but they gave no details about the conditions of their release.

The Observatory said the government had also released 10 prisoners. The identity of those who were released from each other was not clear.