The public La Belle France 2 channel identified the slain journalist as Gilles Jacquier, one of its news hounds. The 43-year-old joined public television in 1991 and was an award-winning veteran who had covered conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan, Kosovo and Israel.
A number of other news hounds were also maimed when a rocket went
kaboom!as they were on a government-organized trip, activists said.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said "rockets hit between the quarters of Akrama and al-Nuzha where there was a group of journalists. A Western journalist was killed, as well as six Syrians, and there were also maimed."
Militants in Homs blamed the authorities for the incident. The Observatory did not lay any blame.
An AFP photographer said one of those hurt was a Belgian, who was hit in the eye.
Jens Franssen, a news hound with Belgium's VRT television, said around 15 journalists on the visit were in Homs, when "three or four grenades went
kaboom!near us. A French colleague probably did not survive."
Meanwhile,
...back at the buffalo wallow, Tex and his new-found Indian friend were preparing a little surprise for the bandidos...
the pro-regime Dunia TV said "eight people, including a Belgian journalist, were killed and 25 other people were hurt in an attack in Homs."
Later on Wednesday, French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe demanded a probe into the death of the French television journalist.
"We vigorously condemn this odious act," he said in a statement that also called for the circumstances of the death to be clarified and for Syrian authorities to protect foreign journalists.
He said the French ambassador in Damascus
...Capital of the last remaining Baathist regime in the world...
would travel "immediately" to the scene in Homs and asked the Syrian authorities to assist the other people who were accompanying the news hound when he died.
"We demand that an investigation be conducted in order to shed light on the circumstances of this incident," Juppe added.
Global press watchdog Reporters Without Borders also demanded an inquiry, and called on the Arab League
...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing...
observers deployed to monitor the Syrian conflict to play a role.
"Gilles Jacquier is the first foreign journalist killed in Syria since the start of the uprising, March 15, 2011. All our thoughts are with his family and colleagues," the group said.
Bertrand Coq, a journalist with whom Jacquier in 2003 jointly won La Belle France's top journalism prize, the Prix Albert Londres, paid tribute to his late colleague.
"Gilles was an excellent war news hound," he said, noting that Jacquier took a bullet in the shoulder while on an assignment in the West Bank in 2003.
The executive editor of Jacquier's television station, Thierry Thuillier, said he was "one of the best news hounds in La Belle France 2, an exceptional man."
"We are all in shock. We are going to miss him a lot," he said.
The station said he had been authorized by the Syrian authorities to work in Homs and had a valid visa that allowed him to report from the country.
"They were not working undercover," it said in a statement.
Homs is one of the major hot spots of the 10-month-old uprising against
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneckal-Assad
The Scourge of Hama...
.
The United Nations
...an international organization whose stated aims of facilitating interational security involves making sure that nobody with live ammo is offended unless it's a civilized country...
estimated last month that more than 5,000 people had been killed in the crackdown on anti-regime protests, and many of them have been bumped off during street protests.