THE body of a young journalist was found beheaded in an abandoned house in eastern Syria, authorities confirmed today, as a hunt was underway for the killers. 

Menal Salih al Mizel, 22, worked for the Deir Ezzor Civil Council Press Office, part of the region’s de facto semi-autonomous administration.

Investigations have been launched by the Internal Security Forces, with jihadists believed to be behind the gruesome execution. 

Isis has largely been defeated in the region, however sleeper cells still operate and launch guerilla-style attacks targeting members of the local councils, municipalities, and other employees of the civil administration. 

Tensions have escalated recently, with Turkey threatening to invade northern Syria, insisting it wants to create 30km (18-mile) buffer-zone to protect itself from “terror attacks.”

Ankara views the Syrian Democratic Forces as an offshoot of the banned Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), but it has not launched any cross-border attacks. 

Turkey meanwhile has carried out countless drone strikes, including one in which three Kurdish women — Zehra Berkel, Hebun Mele Xelil and Amina Waysi — were killed in Kobane in June 2020. 

It has allied with a myriad of jihadist groups in north-western Syria, which has seen a spate of infighting as the Islamists vie for control of the region. 

Washington has recently warned Turkey against its planned invasion, though its forces are also accused of supporting terrorism and have been asked to leave Syria. 

Declassified papers showed in August 2012 that the US was prepared to accept “a declared or undeclared Salafist principality” in eastern Syria to act as a Sunni buffer to weaken Syria and block the influence of Shia Iran.

The CIA’s $1 billion (£850 million) Operation Timber Sycamore programme, initiated by the Obama administration, saw the secret arming, training and funding of what were infamously described as groups of “moderate rebels” in Syria along with ratlines transferring weapons from Libya, many of which went to jihadist groups.

It remains the costliest single US intelligence intervention to date.

Dutch journalist Frederike Geerdink was deported from Iraqi Kurdistan earlier this week as she tried to cross into northern Syria where she hoped to report from the ground in Kobane. 

Ms Geerdink told the Morning Star that her papers had been stamped and approved before she was stopped by Kurdish authorities just “10 steps from the minibus over the river.”

She was taken to Erbil International Airpot and sent back to the Netherlands after being told by Dutch consulate staff that she had been declared “persona non grata.”

In a statement on Twitter she claimed that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was behind her removal from the region, accusing him of fearing “a woman with a pen.”