SYRIAN television presenter Mohammed al-Saeed, kidnapped Syrian television presenter Mohammed al-Saeed, kidnapped from his Damascus home in mid-July, has been executed, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Saturday.\"The television presenter, a well-known figure on state TV, has been executed, and the Al-Nusra Front has claimed responsibility for the killing,\" the Observatory\'s Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.
Al-Nusra, a little-known Islamist militant group, claimed the kidnapping and execution of Saeed in a statement on Friday.
\"The heroes of western Ghouta (in Damascus province) imprisoned the shabih (pro-regime militia) presenter on July 19,\" said Al-Nusra. \"He was then killed after he had been interrogated.\"
Posted on a forum featuring the Al-Qaeda flag, Al-Nusra\'s statement showed a photograph of Saeed looking frightened, with his back against a wall in an unknown location.
\"May this be a lesson to all those who support the regime,\" it said.
Contacted by AFP, state TV director Maan Saleh said: \"We have no material proof of this killing.\"
Last month, international media rights watchdog Reporters Without Borders issued a statement on Saeed\'s kidnapping, and urged his captors to release him.
\"News media and journalists -- both professional and citizen journalists -- should not be targeted by any of the parties in a war or civil war,\" it said at the time.