(ROUGH CUT ONLY - NO REPORTER NARRATION)<br/> <br />Two Western journalists were killed in the besieged Syrian city of Homs on Wednesday when shells hit the house they were staying in, opposition activists and witnesses said.<br/> <br />They were named as Marie Colvin, an American working for Britain's Sunday Times newspaper, and French photographer Remi Ochlik.<br/> <br />A witness told Reuters by phone that shells hit the house where the journalists were staying and a rocket hit them as they were escaping.<br/> <br />Both were veteran reporters of wars in the Middle East and elsewhere.<br/> <br />Colvin gave an interview by telephone to Britain's ITN news on Tuesday in which she said the Syrian shelling of Baba Amro was "merciless".<br/> <br />"The Syrians are not allowing anyone to leave, anyone who gets on the street, if they're not hit by a shell they are sniped; there are snipers all around Baba Amro. I think the sickening things is the completely merciless nature, they are hitting civilian buildings absolutely mercilessly and without caring and the scale of it is just shocking," Colvin said.
