Assad denies targeting slain US journalist Colvin

Syrian President Bashar Assad is denying his forces targeted US-born journalist Marie Colvin, a veteran correspondent for The Times who was killed in Syria in 2012, but says she was “with terrorists” in his country.

“Nobody knows if she (was) killed by missile, or which missile, and where did the missile come from, or how. No one has any evidence,” Assad says in comments aired by NBC.

Relatives of Colvin are suing Assad’s government in US federal court claiming that Syrian officials targeted and killed Colvin to silence her reporting on Syria and the besieged central city of Homs.

The Syrian president says Colvin entered Syria illegally and “went with the terrorists,” adding that the government cannot be responsible for those who enter the country illegally.

— with AP