London: Marie Colvin lost the sight in her left eye when covering the civil war in Sri Lanka in 2001, but went back to work as a journalist
A journalist who was killed at the start of the war in Syria was “assassinated” by the government, family members have claimed in newly released court documents.
Marie Colvin died in February 2012 in Homs, Syria, alongside French photographer Remi Ochlik, when the building they were in was shelled.
Military memos and testimonies from defectors appear to chart how she was targeted.
Ms Colvin worked for the Sunday Times.
The sister of the highly respected correspondent, Cathleen Colvin, has brought a claim to a federal district court in the US stating her death was “an extrajudicial killing” and asking for compensation from the Syrian government.
Several defectors claim in documents submitted for the case that the government tracked journalists’ satellite phone signals to find out their whereabouts.
The Colvin family’s lawyer, Scott Gilmore, said the documents included evidence that the government of Bashar Assad had “identified media workers as targets from very early on in the conflict.”
One anonymous defector names senior military personnel who he says drank and celebrated the day after the journalists died.
He states that a military intelligence officer said: “Marie Colvin was a dog and now she’s dead. Let the Americans help her now.”
Those involved in the attack later received rewards, he said — a general was promoted, and a militia leader was given a new car.
Paul Conroy, a British photographer who was wounded in the same attack, said he had previously been warned of Syrian government orders “to kill any Western journalists found in Homs” but that he and Ms Colvin decided to keep working “to expose the truth of what was happening inside Syria.”
He says in testimony that the attack was targeted using a technique called “bracketing,” which was “very different from the indiscriminate, systematic waves of shelling usually employed daily by the Syrian forces.”
Bracketing involves an artillery gunner receiving information from an observer or drone on how close their fire has fallen to the intended target, so that they can adjust and try again.
Mr Conroy said the building he and the others were in — a makeshift media center — “could not possibly have been a legitimate military target” as he never saw any activists there bearing arms.
The wrongful-death lawsuit, filed last year, could be decided upon within the next few months.
More than 200 journalists have died in Syria in its seven-year war. The government has denied targeting them, and President Assad has previously said of Ms Colvin that she had entered the country illegally, had “worked with the terrorists,” and was “responsible for everything that befell her.”
Marie Colvin was ‘assassinated’ by Syrian government, say family members
Marie Colvin was ‘assassinated’ by Syrian government, say family members
- Cathleen Colvin has brought a claim to a federal district court in the US stating her sister’s death was “an extrajudicial killing” and asking for compensation from the Syrian government.
- Bashar al-Assad has previously said of Ms Colvin that she had entered the country illegally, had “worked with terrorists,” and was “responsible for everything that befell her.”
UN alarm at escalating drone attacks, worsening humanitarian crisis in Sudan’s North Kordofan and Darfur
- El-Obeid, a strategically vital hub linking Khartoum with Darfur region, remains under siege as Rapid Support Forces seeks to consolidate control over critical corridor
- Number of displaced people sheltering near town of Tawila has grown to 715,000 since RSF attacks on El-Fasher began to intensify last year, says UN spokesperson
NEW YORK CITY: The UN on Tuesday expressed alarm over continuing drone attacks in North Kordofan state, warning that the violence and worsening humanitarian conditions are compounding civilian suffering across Sudan.
El-Obeid, the capital of the state, has experienced a series of intense attacks by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, marked by frequent drone strikes targeting key infrastructure across the city.
Government and other public buildings, including the headquarters of the Legislative Council, a police facility, a telecommunications company and a hospital, have sustained significant damage. Last month, drone attacks targeted the city’s power supply and residential neighborhoods, resulting in civilian casualties, including children.
El-Obeid, a strategically vital hub linking Khartoum with Darfur region, remains under siege as the Rapid Support Forces, which has been engaged in a civil war with the Sudanese Armed Forces since April 2023, seeks to consolidate its control over this critical corridor. Since beginning of this month there have been near-daily drone assaults on the city and surrounding areas, including parts of North Kordofan State.
“We continue to be very concerned by the deteriorating humanitarian situation, notably in North Darfur state, and by reports of continuing drone attacks in North Kordofan state,” UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric told reporters in New York.
Drone attacks targeted El-Obeid for at least three consecutive days beginning on Feb. 20. One strike hit the University of Kordofan’s campus in the city on Monday, causing significant structural damage.
In North Darfur, escalating violence in the area around the border town of Tine has forced civilians to flee into neighboring Chad, Dujarric said, and is constraining humanitarian access.
Humanitarian movements through the Adre border crossing nevertheless are continuing and UN aid officials are maintaining close contact with the governments of Chad and Sudan to ensure the safe and efficient passage of supplies and personnel, as the Adre crossing remains indispensable for humanitarian operations in Darfur, the UN said.
Elsewhere in North Darfur, the area around the town of Tawila has become one of the region’s largest and fastest-growing displacement hubs, Dujarric said. It is hosting more than 715,000 people displaced by attacks last year on El-Fasher and nearby camps. Prior to this mass influx, Tawila’s population was estimated at about 40,000. Now more than half a million displaced people are sheltering at four major sites just outside the town.
The UN’s Children’s Fund has found that more than half of the people in North Darfur are not receiving the minimum daily water requirement for survival, which is set by the World Health Organization at 7.5 liters per person per day. More than 40 percent of latrines are non-functional, more than 80 percent of families lack soap, and only 8 percent of women and girls reported having access to sufficient menstrual hygiene supplies.
Humanitarian agencies are calling for rapid funding, as well as safe and unhindered access for the delivery of aid and the scaling up water and sanitation services in Tawila to prevent further deterioration of the public health conditions there.
The UN’s 2026 Humanitarian Response Plan for Sudan is seeking $2.9 billion in funding to assist more than 20 million people nationwide.
