UK reporter dies in Syria onslaught (From Your Local Guardian)

UK reporter dies in Syria onslaught

12:22pm Wednesday 22nd February 2012 in National News © Press Association 2011

Prime Minister David Cameron has led tributes to award-winning Sunday Times journalist Marie Colvin after she was killed in the besieged Syrian city of Homs.

The veteran foreign correspondent died alongside French photographer Remi Ochlik when the house where they were staying was shelled by Syrian government forces.

US-born Ms Colvin was the only UK newspaper reporter in the opposition stronghold of Homs, a leading focus of unrest in the 11-month uprising against Syrian president Bashar Assad.

Mr Cameron said Ms Colvin was "talented and respected", and told MPs her death was a reminder of the risks journalists are taking to report the "dreadful events" in Syria.

Sunday Times editor John Witherow described her as an "extraordinary figure" who was "driven by a passion to cover wars in the belief that what she did mattered".

The newspaper also confirmed that Paul Conroy, a freelance photographer working for the Sunday Times, was injured in the attack but initial reports suggest he was not seriously hurt.

Rupert Murdoch, owner of the Sunday Times, described Ms Colvin as "one of the most outstanding foreign correspondents of her generation".

Amnesty International UK director Kate Allen added: "Marie Colvin was a truly brilliant journalist who fearlessly reported on terrible abuses of human rights around the world. We are shocked and saddened at her death, which is a terrible loss to journalism in this country."

Bridget Jones author Helen Fielding, a close friend of Ms Colvin's, said: "Marie Colvin was the bravest and best of women, the most fearless and committed of journalists, and the dearest, most loyal and wildest fun of friends. I am so sad and so proud of her."

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 Assad. She told the BBC on Tuesday "There's just shells, rockets and tank fire pouring into civilian areas of this city, and it's just unrelenting."