Wounded British journalist smuggled out of Syria

AMMAN - Reuters

Injured British photographer Paul Conroy lies on a stretcher as he is treated by a doctor in Homs February 22, 2012, in this file still image taken from a Reuters TV video February 24, 2012. REUTERS Photo

A British photographer wounded in a Syrian army bombardment of the besieged city of Homs has been smuggled out of the country and is now safe in Lebanon, a diplomat said today.
 
Paul Conroy, of London's Sunday Times, was among several Western journalists trapped in a rebel-held Homs district where Marie Colvin, a war correspondent also with the Sunday Times, and French photographer Remi Ochlik were killed on Feb. 22.
 
"Conroy is now safe and sound in Lebanon," the diplomat told Reuters in Amman.
 Some Syrian opposition activists said Edith Bouvier, a freelance reporter working for French newspaper Le Figaro, who has a broken leg, had also escaped to Lebanon, but there was no immediate confirmation of this.
 
The French Foreign Ministry said it could not confirm or deny the report. "We ask people to be extremely cautious with this kind of information," spokesman Bernard Valero told a news briefing in Paris.
 
"We have no elements at this stage which allow us to confirm what has been published by certain media. No confirmation concerning the situation of our compatriot," Valero said.
 
An activist with the campaign group Avaaz, which has helped some journalists get into Homs, said Bouvier and two other Western journalists were still believed to be in the city.