Time photographer tells of deaths in Syria and flight to safety

The Guardian

"Time magazine's cover story this week carries a lengthy account of the attack in Syria that killed Sunday Times correspondent Marie Colvin and French photographer Remi Ochlik, as told by French photographer William Daniels.

It also tells of the harrowing flight from the beleaguered city of Homs made by Daniels, a Spanish reporter, Javier Espinosa, Sunday Times photographer Paul Conroy and Le Figaro reporter Edith Bouvier, both of whom were injured. They eventually escaped to safety across the border into Lebanon.

Daniels, who was on assignment for Time, explains to the magazine's writer, Vivienne Walt, exactly what happened in the aftermath of the shelling.

Time's managing editor Rick Stengel writes in the issue that Daniels's "dramatic story is a microcosm of what millions of Syrians are going through - only they cannot escape the iron hand of their government and their suffering is far worse." He continues:

"We tell this story to not only document the atrocities occurring in Syria but also highlight the fact that journalists like Daniels, Bouvier, Ochlik and Colvin have been the primary means by which the world even knows what is going on there.

Unlike the aborted Green Revolution in Iran or the Arab Spring in Egypt, Syria is far more isolated and repressed, and few people can film, tweet or email evidence of what they are seeing and experiencing.

That is one reason, as this story reveals, the Assad regime is deliberately targeting journalists."

Read Stengel on Facebook here. See Daniels's pictures on Time's Lightbox here"