Two Western Journalists Killed in Syria
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Dave M. Benett/Getty Images(PARIS) — A U.S. and a French journalist were killed in the central Syrian city of Homs on Wednesday, the 19th day of intense shelling by the forces of President Bashar al-Assad bent on quashing a growing opposition.
The deaths of American Marie Colvin and Frechman Remi Ochlik were confirmed by French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe. They come less than a week after New York Times correspondent Anthony Shadid died in northern Syria from an apparent asthma attack and a day after well-known Syrian opposition journalist Rami al-Sayed died in Homs.
A Long Island native, Colvin wrote for the British Sunday Times. Like Shadid, she was considered one of the best foreign correspondents in the world, covering global conflicts for decades. Ochlik was a freelance photographer who recently won a 2012 World Press Photo prize for a photo from the Libyan revolution.
In a statement, the editor of the Sunday Times called Colvin an “extraordinary figure.”
“She believed profoundly that reporting could curtail the excesses of brutal regimes and make the international community take notice,” John Witherow wrote. “Above all, as we saw in her powerful report last weekend, her thoughts were with the victims of violence.”
Colvin and Ochlik were in a house in the Baba Amr neighborhood of Homs, the district hit hardest by what residents have described as almost three weeks of relentless shelling that has left hundreds dead. Video posted to YouTube purported to show their bodies in a house destroyed by tank shelling.
Activists say 10 Syrians were also killed and three other journalists were injured, including Colvin’s photographer Paul Conroy, who the Times believes is “not too seriously hurt.”
Colvin filed a report for the BBC on Tuesday, saying Baba Amr and its residents are besieged.
“It’s absolutely sickening,” she said. “The Syrians will not let them out, and are shelling all the civilian areas. There’s just shells, rockets and tank fire pouring into civilian areas of this city. It is just unrelenting.”
Colvin lost an eye from a shrapnel wound in Sri Lanka in 2001, an injury that she said “is worth it” in a 2010 speech on the dangers of conflict reporting.
“Covering a war means going to places torn by chaos, destruction, and death…and trying to bear witness,” she said at a memorial for fallen journalists. Someone has to go there and see what is happening. You can’t get that information without going to places where people are being shot at, and others are shooting at you.”
Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio