British journalist dies in Syria (From The Northern Echo)

British journalist dies in Syria

12:02pm Wednesday 22nd February 2012 in News

TRIBUTES have been paid to an award-winning journalist killed in the besieged Syrian city of Homs.

Veteran foreign correspondent Marie Colvin was killed alongside French photographer Remi Ochlik when the house where they were staying came under fire.

Prime Minister David Cameron said the tragedy was a "desperately sad reminder of the risks journalists take" in reporting wars.

US-born Ms Colvin was the only British newspaper reporter in the opposition stronghold of Homs, which has come under repeated heavy shelling by Government forces.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office said it was investigating reports that a British photographer was also injured in the incident.

In her final dispatches, Ms Colvin sought to alert the world to the human tragedy unfolding in Homs, a leading focus of unrest in the 11-month uprising against Syrian president Bashar Assad.

She told the BBC yesterday: ‘‘I watched a little baby die today - absolutely horrific, just a two-year-old been hit, they stripped it and found the shrapnel had gone into the left chest.

‘‘The doctor just said ’I can’t do anything’. His little tummy just kept heaving until he died. That is happening over and over and over.

‘‘No one here can understand how the international community can let this happen, particularly when we have an example of Srebrenica - shelling of a city, lots of investigations by the United Nations after that massacre, lots of vows to never let it happen again.’’