Syrian writer Khaled Khalifa passes away

Syrian author and senior government critic Khaled Khalifa has died at the age of 59. He died at his home in Damascus.
Doctors at the Abbasian Hospital in Damascus said he died of a heart attack. Journalist Yarub Alisa confirmed that he died on Saturday at his home in Damascus. “On Saturday we called him several times but there was no response and then we went to his house, we found him dead on the sofa,” he said.
Caliph of Maryamin, in the northwestern province of Aleppo, is known to the world for his novels, television dramas and newspaper columns. Khalifa also gained fame as the writer of several popular Syrian TV series in the early 1990s.
He is known as an anti-radical columnist critical of the ruling Baath Party and the authorities. After the start of the civil war in 2011, he chose to stay in the country despite the suppression of anti-government protests.
In an interview in 2019, he said, “I am staying because this is my country. I was born here. I live here and I want to die