Damascus officials ‘celebrated killing of war correspondent’

SYRIAN regime officials held a celebration after they targeted and killed Marie Colvin, the veteran war correspondent, a former intelligence officer has claimed.

Colvin, an American journalist working for The Sunday Times, and Remi Ochlik, a French photographer, were killed by rockets fired at a house they were staying at in the Baba Amr neighbourhood of Homs, Syria, in 2012.

Paul Conroy, a British photographer, Edith Bouvier, a French reporter, and Wael al-omar, a Syrian interpreter, were all wounded in the same attack.

The claims were made by the former Syrian officer in newly released court documents filed as part of a wrongfuldeath suit by Colvin’s family.

The former intelligence officer, code named Ulysses, provided a detailed account of how the regime of Bashar Alassad, the Syrian president, sought to capture or kill journalists and activists in Homs in 2011.

The defector claimed that when Colvin’s death was confirmed, several officials celebrated, and Syrian Maj Gen Rafiq Shahadah exclaimed: “Marie Colvin was a dog and now she’s dead. Let the Americans help her now.”

His deposition includes a flowchart identifying eight Syrian officials who were involved in the attack on the media centre where Colvin was killed.

His account appears to be corroborated by Syrian government documents filed as evidence in the case.

The lawsuit alleges that Syrian forces tracked Western journalists’ movements and located their media centre so they could be captured or killed.

Its government claimed after the attack that they had not known who was in the house, or that any of the journalists were in the country as they had entered “illegally”.

However, the lawsuit alleges that Colvin was in fact being tracked from neighbouring Lebanon after Syrian officials received information that she and Mr Conroy were planning to smuggle into the war-torn country.

The pair entered Homs through an underground water tunnel and toured a field hospital and a cellar called the “widow’s basement” where mostly women and children sought shelter from the bombs.

Colvin’s sister is seeking an undetermined amount for the emotional pain of losing her sister, compensatory damages for her three children, who are beneficiaries of Colvin’s estate, and punitive damages against the Syrian government.

So far, the Syrian government has not filed any response to the lawsuit.