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Bodies of Marie Colvin, Remi Ochlik en route to Paris
Source: Agencies |
March 4, 2012, Sunday
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THE bodies of two Western journalists killed in Syria were being returned to Paris overnight, France's ambassador to Damascus Eric Chevallier told AFP.
"I confirm that... the bodies of Remi Ochlick and Marie Colvin are aboard the Air France flight which has just left Damascus bound for Paris," he said.
The bodies were being transported by Air France flight 571 from Damascus to Paris via Amman which left the Syrian capital at 0025 local time today (2225 GMT yesterday).
The body of Marie Colvin was expected to be flown on to her native United States tomorrow or Tuesday, according to a representative of her newspaper, The Sunday Times.
Colvin and her French colleague Ochlik were killed in a rocket attack in the rebel Baba Amr neighborhood of Homs on February 22.
Their bodies were earlier on Saturday handed over to diplomats and taken to the French hospital in the Kassah neighborhood.
Ambassador Chevallier boarded an ambulance that carried the body of Ochlik, while a Polish diplomat went in a separate car behind another ambulance that carried Colvin's body
The coffins were kept in the hospital's morgue while plans were finalized to fly them to Paris.
The bodies were formally identified in Damascus on Friday by French and Polish diplomats.
US interests in Syria are being looked after by the Poles.
The Sunday Times has said Colvin and Ochlik were killed when a rocket hit the front of the building they were in, burying them both in debris.
French reporter Edith Bouvier of Le Figaro newspaper and British photographer Paul Conroy were wounded in the same attack.
Bouvier, 31, and photographer William Daniels, 34, who was not hurt in the rocket attack, were smuggled out of Homs by activists earlier this week to Lebanon and then flown to France.
The pair recounted their harrowing experience from the moment Syrian rockets began hitting their makeshift media centre, and said Syrian forces seemed to be directly targeting journalists in Homs.
"There were at least five successive explosions, very near. We really had the impression that we were directly targeted," the Figaro daily quoted one of them as saying.
"The Syrian activists who were with us, were used to these bombardments and understood the danger immediately. They told us that we must leave right away."
Colvin and Ochlik were the first to leave. A missile struck in front of the press centre.
"The explosion was massive, Marie Colvin and Remi Ochlik were practically at the point of impact. They were killed on the spot," the Figaro reported.
The injured Bouvier couldn't move her leg. "I screamed" and Syrian insurgent fighters took the journalists to a field hospital in a nearby house.
The two French journalists were trapped for days, even after members of the rebel Free Syrian Army managed to get the wounded Conroy and Spanish journalist Javier Espinosa out of the country and into Lebanon.
The United States closed its embassy in Syria in early February and pulled out all its staff after two deadly bomb attacks in Damascus in December and January, and amid an intensification of the regime's crackdown on dissent.
France announced on Friday that it would close its mission.
"I confirm that... the bodies of Remi Ochlick and Marie Colvin are aboard the Air France flight which has just left Damascus bound for Paris," he said.
The bodies were being transported by Air France flight 571 from Damascus to Paris via Amman which left the Syrian capital at 0025 local time today (2225 GMT yesterday).
The body of Marie Colvin was expected to be flown on to her native United States tomorrow or Tuesday, according to a representative of her newspaper, The Sunday Times.
Colvin and her French colleague Ochlik were killed in a rocket attack in the rebel Baba Amr neighborhood of Homs on February 22.
Their bodies were earlier on Saturday handed over to diplomats and taken to the French hospital in the Kassah neighborhood.
Ambassador Chevallier boarded an ambulance that carried the body of Ochlik, while a Polish diplomat went in a separate car behind another ambulance that carried Colvin's body
The coffins were kept in the hospital's morgue while plans were finalized to fly them to Paris.
The bodies were formally identified in Damascus on Friday by French and Polish diplomats.
US interests in Syria are being looked after by the Poles.
The Sunday Times has said Colvin and Ochlik were killed when a rocket hit the front of the building they were in, burying them both in debris.
French reporter Edith Bouvier of Le Figaro newspaper and British photographer Paul Conroy were wounded in the same attack.
Bouvier, 31, and photographer William Daniels, 34, who was not hurt in the rocket attack, were smuggled out of Homs by activists earlier this week to Lebanon and then flown to France.
The pair recounted their harrowing experience from the moment Syrian rockets began hitting their makeshift media centre, and said Syrian forces seemed to be directly targeting journalists in Homs.
"There were at least five successive explosions, very near. We really had the impression that we were directly targeted," the Figaro daily quoted one of them as saying.
"The Syrian activists who were with us, were used to these bombardments and understood the danger immediately. They told us that we must leave right away."
Colvin and Ochlik were the first to leave. A missile struck in front of the press centre.
"The explosion was massive, Marie Colvin and Remi Ochlik were practically at the point of impact. They were killed on the spot," the Figaro reported.
The injured Bouvier couldn't move her leg. "I screamed" and Syrian insurgent fighters took the journalists to a field hospital in a nearby house.
The two French journalists were trapped for days, even after members of the rebel Free Syrian Army managed to get the wounded Conroy and Spanish journalist Javier Espinosa out of the country and into Lebanon.
The United States closed its embassy in Syria in early February and pulled out all its staff after two deadly bomb attacks in Damascus in December and January, and amid an intensification of the regime's crackdown on dissent.
France announced on Friday that it would close its mission.
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