Marie defied warning to leave Homs so she could finish the story, says her mother
The mother of Marie Colvin has told how the distinguished war journalist "died doing what she loved".
The celebrated Sunday Times correspondent was killed in a rocket attack in Syria yesterday as she reported on the uprising against President Bashar Assad's regime.
Today, as diplomatic pressure built on the British Government to respond, Colvin's mother Rosemarie revealed her daughter ignored orders to leave the rebel city of Homs so she could continue sending reports on the brutal crackdown by Syrian regime forces.
Speaking from her home in Long Island, New York, Mrs Colvin said: "She was totally, totally committed to what she did and the importance of telling the story and writing it and getting it out to the world, no matter what. That was her life."
She described how her daughter had spoken to the Sunday Times foreign editor the day before she was killed: "Sean Ryan [Marie's editor] told me he talked to her and he felt it was dangerous and that she should come out. She said she was on a story that was important and she wanted to finish it and that she would leave today. And that's really hard because it was just one day."
Colvin, 56, and French photographer Remi Ochlik, 28, died and other journalists, including British photographer Paul Conroy, were injured in the besieged Baba Amr district of Homs when the house they were staying in was hit.
Dozens were reported killed in the city yesterday as Syrian regime forces intensified their bombardment. Today Foreign Secretary William Hague said he would raise the issue of Syria with America to explore possible further sanctions.
He said: "I'll be discussing today with Hillary Clinton and many of the Arab League leaders what we can achieve.
"People have been dying in their thousands and the Assad regime has been seeming to act with impunity... but I think we can agree on measures with a large number of countries."
Asked whether Britain would withdraw its embassy, Mr Hague said: "There are reasons to maintain embassies sometimes. But I don't rule out withdrawing our embassy, given the gravity of the situation.
"Time is against the Assad regime. We're not doing nothing. We are engaged in tightening the economic screw, which is having an enormous effect... we are clearly not sitting on the sidelines. We want Assad to go." Mr Hague told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that there was no move towards military intervention.
"It is very important to understand the constraints," he said. "This is a much more complex situation than Libya. The consequences of any outside intervention are much harder to foresee."
More than 7,600 people have been killed in Syria since the uprising began last March.
