Colvin's death prompts renewed calls for intervention in Syria

THE DEATH of Sunday Times reporter Marie Colvin and French photographer Remi Ichlik in Homs yesterday has prompted renewed calls for international intervention to end the bloody Assad regime in Syria. But will it happen?

A death that calls for action

If the President of Syria enjoyed the benefit of the doubt, he enjoys it no longer, says an editorial in The Times. After Marie Colvin's reports on the crimes in Syria and her death while reporting them, Britain now understands what he has done. "Colvin gave her life to bear witness to his cruelty and barbarism, and it is up to those she left behind to bring an end to it."

Colvin's death and the resulting dramatisation of the Syrian conflict inevitably makes it more likely that the outside world will feel compelled to intervene, blogs Gideon Rachman for The Financial Times. Still, a Libya-style intervention is still a long way off. Western leaders are extremely conscious of the fragility of Syria, the strength of the Syrian military, and the disorganised and sometimes unsavoury nature of the Syrian opposition. Still, "as the regime's violence mounts, the call for ‘something to be done' may become irresistible".

Cracks in Russia's position?

What will it take before something is done? asks an editorial in The Independent. The conflict is rapidly turning into a full-scale humanitarian disaster, with the situation for civilians in the city of Homs desperate. "The only chink of light in the almost uniformly dark outlook for Syria is that Russia has now lent its support to the International Committee of the Red Cross's plea for a daily two-hour ceasefire". But this is not enough. The UN must renew its call to Russia to back the Arab League-backed resolution against Syria.

Death throws of dictatorship?

Perhaps we are witnessing the end of the Assad regime, argues Richard Spencer in The Daily Telegraph, as images of the death and suffering of countless Syrians are beamed around the world by online video and Facebook posts.

The Syrian regime seems to be killing because it does not know what else to do. It is "screaming a hideous death-cry, not just for its own rule, but for an ideology of dictatorship", adds Spencer. "Here is a species on the verge of extinction, lashing out as it sinks into prehistory." ·