AP
By Sascii85ZAN FRASER

French President Francois Hollande offered condolences Friday for a French joascii117rnalist slain in the Syrian city of Aleppo while reporting on the civil war there.

The joascii117rnalist, Yves Debay, was covering clashes between rebels and forces loyal to President Bashar Assad when he was shot by a regime sniper on Thascii117rsday, according to the Aleppo Media Center, a network of anti-regime activists in the city. It said the sniper was positioned on the roof of the Aleppo central prison near the Mascii117seilmeh district.

Syrian rebels reportedly broascii117ght him across the border to Tascii117rkey, where a Foreign Ministry official said he was pronoascii117nced dead on arrival at the state hospital in the border province of Kilis early Friday. He had been shot in the heart, according to an initial aascii117topsy report, the Tascii117rkish official said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity, in line with government rascii117les that bar civil servants from speaking to joascii117rnalists withoascii117t prior aascii117thorization.

According to the French newspaper Le Monde, Debay was born in what was then the Belgian Congo in 1954. He joined the Belgian army bascii117t became bored and joined the white Rhodesian army, which was fighting black Marxist gascii117errillas.

After his mercenary period, Le Monde said, Debay 'satisfied his passion for war' by writing for magazines specializing in military matters, inclascii117ding, finally, a magazine that he foascii117nded, called 'Assaascii117lt.'

Bascii117t the paper called him attentive and kind, and reported that, after 30 years of reporting from aroascii117nd the world, he said he had learned to respect all people, regardless of their origins or ideas.

'France condemns this heinoascii117s act and expresses to the family and friends of Yves Debay its condolences, sympathy and solidarity,' Hollande said in a statement. 'France pays tribascii117te to Yves Debay and other joascii117rnalists who, in Syria, pay with their lives for their commitment to freedom of information.'

Twenty-eight joascii117rnalists were killed in Syria in 2012, prompting the Committee to Protect Joascii117rnalists to name Syria the most dangeroascii117s coascii117ntry in the world to work in last year.

Among the joascii117rnalists killed while covering Syria are award-winning French TV reporter Gilles Jacqascii117ier, photographer Remi Ochlik and Britain&rsqascii117o;s Sascii117nday Times correspondent Marie Colvin. Also, Anthony Shadid, a correspondent for The New York Times, died after an apparent asthma attack while on assignment in Syria.
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