Naji al-Jerf, who worked with a group that documents abuses in areas under "IS" control in Syria, was shot and killed with a silencer-equipped weapon on Sunday, the group he was working for, Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently, (RBSS) said.

Al-Jerf had recently completed a film documenting abuses under "IS"-controlled parts of Aleppo for RBSS, a group that won the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists' 2015 International Press Freedom Award.

He was also the editor of the monthly magazine "Henteh," which reports on events in Syria.

Friends said that this week he was to go to France, where he and his family had received asylum.

In October, an RBSS activist and his friend were found with severed heads in their home in Sanliurfa in southern Turkey. "IS" later claimed responsibility for the deaths.

RBSS activists have been regularly targeted in Syria by "IS."

The group is named after Raqqa, the self-declared capital of the "caliphate" the terror group declared after taking over large parts of Syria and Iraq.

Turkey has been criticized for looking the other way to an "IS" presence in the country and allowing fighters to cross the porous border with Syria. Authorities began cracking down on the terror group late this year following a series of "IS" terror attacks and pressure from the United States.

cw/se (AFP, dpa)