Bodies of two journalists killed in Syria recovered

The International Committee of the Red Cross has said it has recovered the bodies of two foreign journalists killed in Syria.

The group is transporting the remains of Sunday Times reporter Marie Colvin and French photographer Rémi Ochlik to Damascus, said Red Cross spokesman Bijan Farnoudi.

However, the group says Syrian authorities have blocked an aid convoy carrying emergency supplies from entering the Baba Amr district in the besieged city of Homs.

Colvin and Ochlik were killed in Homs last month.

Two of their colleagues, French journalists Edith Bouvier and William Daniels, who were smuggled out of Homs, have arrived in France.

French president Nicolas Sarkozy greeted them on their arrival at the military airport of Villacoublay, west of Paris.

Bouvier was injured during the rocket attack that killed Colvin and Ochlik and wounded a British photographer Paul Conroy.

Sarkozy praised Bouvier’s courage and the “almost chivalrous spirit of her partner in misfortune, William Daniels, who never abandoned Edith Bouvier even though he was unhurt and had other possibilities of getting out”.

“I want to say in the most solemn way that the Syrian authorities will have to answer to international legal authorities for their crimes,” Sarkozy said. “The crimes they committed will not go unpunished.”

The president of the Red Cross says the decision to deny aid groups access to Baba Amr is “unacceptable”.

Jakob Kellenberger said the aid group would stay in Homs overnight in the hope of entering Baba Amr “in the very near future”.

The Syrian government had given the Red Cross permission on Thursday to enter Baba Amr after security forces took the district from rebels. “It is unacceptable that people who have been in need of emergency assistance for weeks have still not received any help,” said Kellenberger.