TV correspondent killed, Gunmen killed a TV correspondent for a Syrian state-owned channel and wounded two other station employees Monday who were covering clashes near the border with Lebanon, Syria's government said, as regime troops backed by fighters from the Lebanese militant Hezbollah group advanced on a rebel-held town in the strategic area.
The fighting around the town of Qusair has taken a heavy toll on both the rebel and government forces, including the regime's Hezbollah allies. An activist group said the Lebanese militia has lost nearly 80 fighters this month, most of them in Qusair.
Syria's Information Ministry said Yara Abbas, a prominent female war reporter for state-owned Al-Ikhbariyah TV, was attacked by rebels near the Dabaa military air base in the central province of Homs. The ministry said in a statement carried by state TV that the car carrying Abbas and her crew was ambushed in Dabaa.
The attack also wounded two other of the station's employees, a cameraman and his assistant, according to state TV.
Dozens of journalists have been killed, wounded or kidnapped since Syria's crisis began in March 2011. Over that time, more than 70,000 people have been killed in the conflict, according to the United Nations.
Dabaa air base is located near Qusair, which has been under attack by government forces and Hezbollah fighters since last week. Dozens of rebels, troops and Hezbollah members have been killed in the heavy fighting that entered its 9th day on Monday.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported fighting in Qusair and Dabaa early Monday. It said troops and Hezbollah fighters captured the nearby town of Hamidiyeh, tightening the siege on Qusair.
Observatory director Rami Abdul-Rahman said troops are now trying to capture the village of Haret al-Turkumen in order to put Qusair under "complete siege."
State TV said troops captured more parts of the northern and central rebel-held neighborhoods of Qusair that had been mostly under rebel control shortly after the crisis began.
The Observatory said that Hezbollah has lost 79 members in Syria in 10 days of fighting, all of them but four of them in the Qusair area.
