Syrian activist and her American journalist daughter killed in their Istanbul home

A prominent Syrian activist and her journalist daughter were found dead in their Istanbul apartment late Thursday, according to Turkish media reports.

Police discovered the bodies of 60-year-old Orouba Barakat and 23-year-old Hala Barakat, a U.S. citizen, after friends and family in Turkey and Syria raised the alarm following several days without contact, according to residents of their Uskudar neighborhood and the semiofficial Anadolu news agency.

Orouba Barakat was an outspoken member of the Syrian National Coalition, an opposition body that has taken part in internationally brokered peace talks with President Bashar al-Assad’s government.

Hala Barakat, who was raised in Raleigh, N.C., was a well-regarded journalist with the opposition outlet Orient TV. In recent months, her Twitter postings commemorated the lives of civil defense workers killed in bombings by pro-Assad forces and lamented the destruction of the northern city of Aleppo, much of it a rebel stronghold until it was recaptured after a punishing government bombardment in December.

Read the whole story from The Washington Post.

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