Marie Colvin Dead: Funeral For Journalist Who Died In Syrian Violence

Marie Colvin Is Laid To Rest (PICTURES)

The funeral for slain journalist Marie Colvin was held in New York on Monday.

Colvin and French photographer Remi Ochlik were killed in Syria on 22 February after becoming trapped inside the besieged Baba Amr district of Homs.

Colvin’s remains were flown to France last week and she was repatriated to her native USA shortly afterwards. Her friends and family bid her farewell today at a service in Oyster Bay, New York.

The 56-year-old was laid to rest at the St Dominic Roman Catholic Church in the Long Island community where she grew up.

The Oyster Bay High School graduate is survived by two brothers, two sisters and her mother Rosemarie, who led mourners today.

Colvin's mother had told the press her daughter had insisted on remaining in Homs despite being ordered to get out by her editor.

She said: "She had to stay. She wanted to finish one more story."

Colvin and Ochlik's deaths fuelled renewed calls for urgent international action to avert a humanitarian disaster in Syria where more than 7,500 civilians have died at the hands of brutal leader president Bashar Assad.

Photographer Paul Conroy, who was injured alongside Colvin, told reporters that working with her had been an "absolute privilege".

Speaking from his hospital bed in London, Conroy told PA: "She was tenacious - one of the bravest people I know and to be quite honest, we never get the choice of how we die, but Marie died doing something she was completely passionate about."

Conroy said he feared for what would happen in Syria with no cameras or journalists there to report.

He said: "It's an attempt to massacre. It's horrifying to think that this is the part we're seeing.

"Once the cameras are gone, as they are now, God knows what's happening. Any talking now is too late."

Opposition fighters had been in control of the neighbourhood for several months, and a regime offensive on Homs that began in early February aimed to retake rebel-held neighbourhoods inside the city.

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