Injured journalist escapes from Syria

BEIRUT – A harrowing rescue mission into the besieged city of Homs succeeded in spiriting an injured British photojournalist out of Syria, activists said Tuesday, but the chaotic operation ended with 10 rescue workers killed and three other Western journalists still apparently trapped inside strife-torn Syria.

The rescued journalist, Paul Conroy, was carried out of Homs clandestinely through a gap in a Syrian military cordon, activists said.

But intense shelling and sniper fire scattered the rescue party, causing Conroy and some rescuers to become separated from his journalist colleagues and killing three aid workers, according to Avaaz, a New York-based activist group that helped coordinate the effort.

Seven more rescuers perished in the barrage after part of the aid contingent tried to find a refuge while carrying Edith Bouvier, an injured French journalist, Avaaz said.

Avaaz described a perilous mission in which unarmed rescuers faced shelling and sniper fire in the dark of night in an urban combat zone where armed rebels and Syrian security forces face off against each other and hundreds of civilians have been reported killed in recent weeks.

Still believed to be trapped in Syria were three European journalists, including Bouvier, 31, a reporter for the French daily Le Figaro who appeared last week on an Internet video pleading for help and saying she desperately needed to be taken to a hospital. Conroy also appeared last week on an Internet video pleading for help. At the time, both were being cared for in a makeshift clinic possibly subject to shelling.

British authorities said Tuesday that Conroy, who was on assignment for the Sunday Times of London, was in Lebanon and in good health.

All 10 rescue workers killed were Syrian volunteers and activists, Avaaz said.