#gained influence

BEIRUT | Prominent Syrian activist killed in rebel-held province

BEIRUT— A war monitor and Syrian activists are reporting that masked gunmen in the country’s rebel-held northwestern province have killed a prominent anti-government journalist who was also a sharp critic of Islamist militants.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says gunmen fired Friday at Raed Fares and colleague Hammoud al-Juneid in Kafranbel, a town in the south of Idlib province. The two…