Jeroen Oerlemans, a Dutch photojournalist, was killed Sunday when he took fire from an ISIS sniper in Libya, a government spokesman said.
Jeroen Oerlemans was near a roundabout in Sirte on Sunday when he was shot in the chest while reporting for the Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant, according to the Libya Observer, which said the journalist was shot by an Islamic State sniper.
His death was also confirmed by Dutch journalist Jan Eikelboom. “Jeroen Oerlemans was shot dead by a sniper in Sirte. He was wearing a vest but the bullet struck him in the side and hit his heart,” he said on Twitter.
Other details were not immediately available.
Oerlemans and British journalist John Cantlie were both kidnapped in Syria in September 2012 and held for about a week, during which they were shot while trying to escape. It is unclear who held them but Oerlemans said after their rescue that their captors were not of Syrian origin.
Cantlie was also freed at the time, but he was later abducted again and remains a captive of the Islamic State, which has used Cantlie for propaganda. Writing on Twitter, Oerlemans had expressed hope for Cantlie’s safe release. “Still hoping he’ll be home one day,” he wrote in his last tweet in July.
Christopher B. Taub
