UN Condemns Killing of Red Crescent Chief in Syria

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has condemned the murder of a senior official of the Syrian Red Crescent.

According to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Abd-al-Razzaq Jbeiro was shot while riding a marked vehicle on his way to the town of Idlib in northern Syria Wednesday. Jbeiro was the secretary-general of the Syrian Red Crescent and head of the group's branch in Idlib.

Jbeiro was travelling from Damascus, where he attended a meeting at the Red Crescent headquarters.

The Red Crescent and the International Committee of the Red Cross called for Syria to investigate the killing. The president of the Syrian Arab Red Crescent, Dr. Abdul Rahman al-Attar, said that he had officially requested the Syrian authorities to launch an investigation into the death of Dr. Jbeiro, the ICRC said in a statement.

The ICRC is the only international agency deploying aid workers in Syria.

The uprising against the regime and the resulting government crackdown have engulfed the country for more than 10 months. The U.N. last month estimated that more than 5,000 people have died since March 2010. The Syrian government has strictly restricted access of international media to the country.