A French TV cameraman became the first Western journalist killed in the 10-month-old Syrian uprising Wednesday, dying in a barrage of grenades during a government-sponsored trip to Homs, officials and a witness said.
The violence came just hours after President Bashar Assad made a surprise appearance at a rally in the capital, Damascus, joining thousands of supporters in a show of confidence.
The killing of Gilles Jacquier, who worked for France-2 Television, was likely to become a rallying cry for both sides, as the regime and the opposition blame each other for a recent spate of mysterious attacks.
The government blamed “terrorists” for Wednesday’s attack, which it said also killed eight Syrians.
Jacquier, 43, was the first foreign journalist to be slain in the Syrian conflict, Reporters Without Borders said. During the uprising, several Syrian journalists have been killed or tortured as they tried to cover the revolt.
Meanwhile, the Arab League mission to assess whether the government is abiding by an agreement to end the crackdown came under fresh scrutiny after a former monitor said he quit in disgust because the regime was committing “war crimes” against its own people.
“The mission was a farce, and the observers have been fooled,” Anwer Malek told al-Jazeera.
Also Wednesday, the U.S. State Department said it had ordered a number of embassy employees to leave Syria as soon as possible because of security concerns. And it reminded Americans to avoid traveling to Syria.
