Body of journalist killed in Syria returns to France

The body of a French journalist killed in Syria has returned home amid reports the French authorities believe the regime of President Bashir al-Assad could be behind his death. 

Reuters/France Televisions/Handout

Gilles Jacquier, a 43-year-old reporter with France 2 public television, was killed during a government-organised trip to the flashpoint city of Homs on Wednesday, becoming the first Western reporter to die in Syria since the start of anti-regime protests in mid-March 2011.

French daily, Le Figaro, quotes a source close to President Nicolas Sarkozy saying the Syrian authorities were the only ones who knew that a group of Western journalists were visiting Homs that day and where they could be found.

Damascus says it will investigate the death which the Syrian opposition said was an orchestrated attack aimed at preventing journalists from covering the protests.

Meanwhile, activists have called for nationwide demonstrations in support of the Free Syrian Army,  FSA,  on Friday a day after the main civilian opposition umbrella group, the Syrian National Council, SNC, agreed to work more closely with the armed rebels.

Formed from deserters from the regular army who mutined over the regime’s crackdown on anti-government protests, the FSA says it has around 40,000 fighters under its command.

A statement by the SNC said the organisation proposed a plan of action concerning mechanisms and avenues of support to be offered to pro-revolution sectors of the Syrian military.

The SNC originally opposed the use of force in the uprising, but decided in the face of the deadly crackdown on protestors, to open talks with the SFA in late-November. The two organisations have since held a series of meetings and agreed to step up cooperation.