Journalist escapes Syria; new massacre fears

BEIRUT -- A Spanish journalist who was trapped in Homs escaped to Lebanon yesterday as the government threatened a new offensive to "cleanse" a rebel-held neighborhood of the besieged Syrian city.

Javier Espinosa was one of four foreign reporters trapped in the rebel-controlled Baba Amr neighborhood of Homs since a rocket attack last week by Syrian military forces killed two Western journalists and wounded two.

His domestic partner, Monica Garcia Prieto, said he had crossed the border into Lebanon, but two French journalists, Edith Bouvier and William Daniels, remain in Baba Amr.

Bouvier and British photographer Paul Conroy were wounded in the rocket attack on a makeshift media center in the city that killed Long Island native Marie Colvin and French photographer Remi Ochlik. Conroy was smuggled into Lebanon on Tuesday after leaving the neighborhood late Sunday. Activists said 13 Syrians trying to help Conroy get out were killed in the operation.

The ordeal of the journalists, who sneaked into Syria illegally to report on the 11-month uprising against authoritarian President Bashar Assad, has drawn attention to Homs, parts of which have been under a government siege and shelling campaign for nearly four weeks.

Heightening fears about the remaining two journalists, a Syrian official said yesterday that the government was planning a major offensive against Baba Amr.

"Baba Amr will be under complete control in the coming hours and we'll cleanse all the armed elements from the area," he said, speaking on condition of anonymity under government protocols.

It was virtually impossible to reach anyone inside Baba Amr yesterday. Activists elsewhere in the city said their colleagues in Baba Amr had quit communicating with the outside because of fears the army would trace their signals to target them.

The Obama administration summoned Syria's senior envoy in the United States to express outrage over the offensive on Homs. The State Department said its top diplomat for the Mideast, Jeffrey Feltman, met with Zuheir Jabbour, the highest ranking official at the Syrian Embassy in Washington.