BEIRUT – Syrian gunners pounded an opposition stronghold where the last dispatches from a veteran American-born war correspondent chronicled the suffering of civilians caught in the relentless shelling.
An intense morning barrage killed her and a French photojournalist – two of 74 deaths reported Wednesday in Syria.
“I watched a little baby die today,” Marie Colvin told the BBC from the embattled city of Homs on Tuesday in one of her final reports.
“Absolutely horrific, a 2-year-old child had been hit,” added Colvin, who worked for Britain’s Sunday Times. “They stripped it and found the shrapnel had gone into the left chest and the doctor said, ‘I can’t do anything.’ His little tummy just kept heaving until he died.”
Colvin and photographer Remi Ochlik were among a group of journalists who had crossed into Syria and were sharing accommodations with activists, raising speculation that government forces targeted the makeshift media center, although opposition groups had previously described the shelling as indiscriminate.
Colvin, from East Norwich, N.Y., was a veteran foreign correspondent for the Sunday Times for the past two decades. She was instantly recognizable for an eye patch worn after being wounded covering conflicts in Sri Lanka in 2001.
Ochlik this month won first prize in the general news category of the prestigious 2012 World Press Photo contest for his 12-photograph series titled “Battle For Libya.”
Hundreds of people have died in weeks of siege-style attacks on Homs that have come to symbolize the desperation and defiance of the nearly year-old uprising against President Bashar Assad.
The Syrian military appears to be stepping up assaults to block the opposition from gaining further ground and political credibility with the West and Arab allies. On Wednesday, helicopter gunships reportedly strafed mountain villages that shelter the rebel Free Syrian Army, and soldiers staged door-to-door raids in Damascus, among other attacks.
The bloodshed and crackdowns brought some of the most galvanizing calls for the end of Assad’s rule.
“That’s enough now. The regime must go,” French President Nicolas Sarkozy said after his government confirmed the deaths of Colvin, 56, and Ochlik, 28.
The U.S. and other countries have begun to cautiously examine possible military aid to the rebels.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton heads to Tunisia for a meeting Friday of more than 70 nations to look at ways to assist Assad’s opponents, which now include hundreds of defected military officers and soldiers.
“This tragic incident is another example of the shameless brutality of the Assad regime,” U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said of the killing of the journalists.
In Saudi Arabia, the state news agency described King Abdullah scolding Russian President Dmitry Medvedev – one of Assad’s few remaining allies – for joining China in vetoing a U.N. Security Council resolution this month condemning the violence.
Now even Moscow said the ongoing bloodshed adds urgency for a cease-fire to allow talks between his regime and opponents.
