American journalist Marie Colvin, 55, and French photographer Remi Ochlik, 28, were killed Wednesday morning in Homs, Syria. The two were at a make shift media center run by activists in the district of Baba Amr when a shell hit the building. Several rockets were also fired at the building.
According to reports, two other foreign journalists were wounded in the attack. They have been identified as British freelance photographer Paul Conroy and French reporter Edith Bouvier. Bouvier is said to be in serious condition.
During her 27 year career with London’s Sunday Times, Colvin covered numerous conflicts in the Middle East as well as Sierra Leone, Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka. While working in Sri Lanka in 2001, she lost her left eye to shrapnel.
Sunday Times editor John Witherow called Colvin “an extraordinary figure.” "Marie was an extraordinary figure in the life of the Sunday Times, driven by a passion to cover wars in the belief that what she did mattered," he said. "She believed profoundly that reporting could curtail the excesses of brutal regimes and make the international community take notice."
Ochlik photographed conflicts in Haiti, Democratic Republic of Congo, and most recently Tunisia, Egypt and Libya. In 2011, he won a World Press Photo award for a picture of a Libyan rebel fighter.
Western officials are currently working on recovering Colvin and Ochlik’s bodies.
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