Yamamoto, a video and photojournalist for Tokyo-based Japan
Press, was killed
in clashes between rebels and Syrian government forces in the northern city of
Aleppo, according to news reports and Japan’s Foreign Ministry.
In footage
released by Japan Press and shot shortly before her death, Yamamoto is seen
traveling with the rebel Free Syrian Army to an area that had been bombed when
gunshots were heard. Aleppo was the scene of a heavy government attacks that
day.
Yamamoto was among a group of journalists that included
Kazutaka Sato, her husband and colleague. In a telephone interview with Japan’s
NTV and described by Reuters,
Sato said: “We saw a group of people in camouflage fatigues coming toward us.
They appeared to be government soldiers. They started random shooting. They
were just 20, 30 meters away or even closer.” The other journalists scattered and
escaped harm, he said, but Yamamoto was struck by the gunfire. She died at a
nearby hospital.
Deputy Foreign Minister Faysal Mekdad denied that government
forces killed Yamamoto and said she was killed by “armed groups,” The
Associated Press reported.
Yamamoto, 45, was a veteran correspondent, who covered the
war in Afghanistan in 2001 and the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, according
to Japan Press, which produces documentaries and news footage, according to its
website.