Syrian activist, daughter stabbed to death in Istanbul

A Syrian anti-Assad activist and her journalist daughter have been found dead at their home in Istanbul, police said Friday.

The bodies of Orouba Barakat, 60, and her 22-year-old daughter Hala Barakat were found in their apartment in Uskudar, a neighborhood on the Asian shore of the Bosphorus, late Thursday.

They had been stabbed to death, a police official said on condition of anonymity due to restrictions on talking to the media.

The alarm was raised after Hala Barakat did not go to work for two days and colleagues contacted police.

In a Facebook post, Orouba Barakat's sister Shaza said they had been "assassinated" by the "hand of injustice and tyranny" -- a reference to Bashar al-Assad's regime.

The Syrian Revolution Network, an opposition media group, said Orouba Barakat had been a human rights activist who had opposed the regime of Hafez al-Assad and then that of his son Bashar since the 1980s.

The deaths are not the first tragedy to hit the family in recent years.

In February 2015, Deah Barakat, a cousin based in the U.S., was shot dead alongside with his wife and her sister in North Carolina.

Shaza Barakat's son was killed by the regime in Syria.