THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Syrian forces murdered journalist Marie Colvin after pledging to kill "any journalist who set foot on Syrian soil", it has emerged.
The 55-year-old Sunday Times reporter was killed alongside French photographer Remi Ochlik, 28, in a rocket attack on the besieged city of Homs this morning.
Now communication between Syrian Army officers intercepted by Lebanese intelligence staff has revealed that direct orders were issued to target the makeshift press centre in which Colvin had been broadcasting.
If journalists were successfully killed, then the Syrians were told to make out that they had died accidentally in firefights with terrorist groups, the radio traffic revealed.
Just before she died, Colvin had appeared on numerous international broadcast networks including the BBC and CNN to accuse Syrian dictator Bashar Al-Assad's forces of [â] murder'.
Jean-Pierre Perrin, a journalist for the Paris-based Liberation newspaper who was with Colvin in Homs last week, claimed they had been told that the Syrian Army was "deliberately" going to shell their centre.
Mr Perrin said: "A few days ago we were advised to leave the city urgently and we were told: 'If they (the Syrian Army) find you they will kill you'.
"I then left the city with the journalist from the Sunday Times but then she wanted to go back when she saw that the major offensive had not yet taken place." » | Nabila Ramdani, Peter Allen in Paris | Wednesday, February 22, 2012
THE SUN: Sunday Times journalist Marie Colvin killed in Syria: Reporter and French photographer Remi Ochlik die during shelling » | Staff Reporter | Wednesday, February 22, 2012
THE TIMES: Sunday Times journalist killed in Syria: The Sunday Times journalist Marie Colvin — an American who became one of Fleet Street’s most courageous war reporters — has been killed covering the conflict in Syria. Colvin, 55, died this morning in the besieged city of Homs together with a French photographer,… | Philippe Naughton and Laura Pitel | Wednesday, February 22, 2012 [£]
