Marie Colvin, a journalist for Sunday Times and freelance French photojournalist Remi Ochlik killed in Homs in a recent bombardment by Syrian forces.

Beirut / NationalTurk – Marie Colvin, a veteran American war correspondent of England’s Sunday Times and freelance French photojournalist Remi Ochlik have been killed in Homs the besieged Syrian city while trying fleeing from a bombardment. A shell hit the house in which they were staying.

In the most lethal attack on western media since the unrest in Syria started, at least three activists were also killed. The three Syrians had all played prominent roles in chronicling the regime’s assault Homs over the past four months. One of those killed was the video blogger, Rami al-Sayed, also known as Syria Pioneer, who had uploaded to the internet at least 200 videos of death and destruction in his neighbourhood.

Syrian forces first threatened all journalists then killed them

Two other foreign reporters as well as seven activists from the ravaged Bab al-Amr neighbourhood were also wounded on Wednesday. One of the wounded is the a freelance photographer, Paul Conroy, who was travelling with Colvin.

Marie Colvin was a experienced and renown war reporter who had covered numerous conflicts in various parts of the world over 30 years and wore a distinctive black eye patch after losing an eye to a shrapnel wound in Sri Lanka in 2001. She was voted Foreign Correspondent of the Year in the British Press Awards 2010

Remi Ochlik was a 28-year-old photographer represented by the IP3 agency, which he co-founded in Paris, who quit his studies aged 20 to report on Haiti and has since covered many of the recent upheavals in the Arab world. He won last month a World Press Photo award.

Marie Colvin and Remi Ochlik died together in a Homs shelling

They died together instantly when the shell from a Syrian mortar struck the safe house that had been provided for them by local activists just after 9am. Her body, along with Ochlik’s was recovered from the rubbles just after 1pm.

France’s Culture Minister Frederic Mitterrand said the pair had been fleeing a bombardment in the besieged rebel bastion of Homs when they were killed. “It’s absolutely overwhelming, terrible,” he said.

Marie Colvin and Remi Ochlik had been in Bab al-Amr area of Homs for the past week reporting on the bloody siege of opposition held parts of Syria’s third biggest city that has claimed hundreds of lives and led to a humanitarian crisis.

The house in which the reporters were based was located next to a hospital and had been the main refuge for all reporters who had made it to Bab al-Amr in the face of a relentless barrage by regime forces over the past few weeks.

Syria, Homs : Very, very dangerous place

“Homs is a very, very dangerous place,” Bassma Kodmani, spokeswoman for the Syrian National Council, the most representative Syrian opposition umbrella group, told reporters in Paris.

Opposition’s comments arouse suspicion

“I see no reason why opposition members would shoot at journalists,” she said. “It is, therefore, most probably related to the regime.” French television reporter Gilles Jacquier was killed in Homs last month as a shell exploded amid a group of journalists covering protests in the city during a visit organised by the Syrian authorities. But those comments raised eyebrows as Syrian opposition could have also killed them in an attempt to accelerate the expected Western intervention in form of an invasion of Syria.

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