2 foreign journalists killed in Syria
Written by on February 22nd, 2012 in Latest News.
Two foreign journalists have been killed by Syrian government troops shelling the southern city of Homs.
In Paris, the government of France identified the two as Remi Ochlik, a French photographer, and Marie Colvin, an American reporter. Colvin was reported elsewhere to have been working for the Sunday Times in Britain.
Omar Shaker, a Syrian activist, said the two journalists were killed Wednesday when several rockets hit the garden of a house used by activists and journalists in the besieged Homs neighbourhood of Baba Amr.
Reuters news agency said journalists have been sneaking into Syria illegally in the past few months with the help of smugglers to cover the 11-month uprising against President Bashar al-Assad’s regime. The government bars nearly all foreign journalists and human rights groups.
The government crackdown killed more than 5,400 people last year, the UN has estimated.
Homs has been one of the cities hit toughest by the government crackdown. Activists say hundreds of people were killed this month in the city.
Colvin, a highly experienced war reporter, was interviewed earlier this week in Homs by a British journalist about the nature of the conflict in the city.
“The Syrians are not allowing civilians to leave,” she said. “Anyone who gets on the street, if they’re not hit by a shell, they’re sniped. There are snipers all around Baba Amr [neighbourhood] on the high buildings.
“I reckon the sickening thing is the complete merciless nature. They’re hitting civilian buildings … and the scale of it is just shocking.”
An amateur video posted online by activists showed what they said were bodies of two people in the middle of a heavily hurt house. It said they were of the journalists. One of the dead was wearing what appeared to be a flak jacket.
Ochlik was born in eastern France in 1983, his website says. He covered conflicts in the Democratic Republic of Congo, elections in Haiti in 2010, and the uprisings in Egypt and Libya. His work appeared in Le Monde, Paris Match, Time magazine and the Wall Street Journal.
