Both sides have claimed the other killed Bakoush Damascus – George Al Shami Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has awarded late comic actor Yassine Bakoush the Syrian Order of Merit of the First Degree for “service to the arts,” the state-run SANA news agency reported on Sunday. However, Syrian opposition groups are also claiming Bakoush as their own after the actor was killed in a regime rocket attack two weeks ago. Marginalised in life, Bakoush has become a Syrian hero in death. The popular actor was killed in an opposition-controlled area of Damascus when a rocket-propelled grenade hit the car he was driving. Activists posted a video online appearing to show his body alongside his identity papers and passport. SANA meanwhile claimed Bakoush had been killed by mortar shells “fired by terrorists at his car in the Yarmouk refugee camp in Damascus.” Bakoush was among Syria’s best-loved comic actors. He will be remembered as part of the generation of actors that revolutionised Syrian comedy in the 1960s alongside Lahham, Kalai, Rafik Sebaei and Naji Jabr. Bakoush was most famous for his role as Yassino in Rise And Shine and as Malh Sokkhar in Salt And Pepper, in which he starred as a simple, working-class waiter. Bakoush is survived by his wife and 11 children.