British photographer escapes Homs

 

British photographer Paul Conroy was yesterday smuggled out of the besieged city of Homs with help from the Syrian opposition and Free Syria Army fighters, the BBC has said.

The 47 years old photographer was wounded in the leg during an attack on a makeshift media centre last Wednesday, along with French Le Figaro journalist Edith Bouvier, whose whereabouts is unknown.

Conroy’s father, Les, told the Press Association: “We’ve just had word from Beirut. I’ve got it on the other phone in my other hand.”

Syrian opposition sources said he was smuggled out of Baba Amr yesterday and taken through the Syrian countryside before crossing the border into Lebanon during the night.

Marie Colvin and French photojournalist Remi Ochlik were killed during the attack.

The Syrian Red Crescent yesterday extracted three Syrians, including a pregnant woman, her husband and an elderly female patient, but that it had been unable to bring out the journalists or the bodies of their colleagues.

According to BBC reports, Homs today came under some of its heaviest bombardment yet, with the government sending in units of an elite armoured division into rebel-held districts to try to end the three-week-long offensive.

The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) begins an emergency session in Geneva to discuss the deteriorating humanitarian and security situation in Syria.

See Conroy and Bouviers’ video message following the attack: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-17188791

 

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