War correspondent Marie Colvin has been buried in the Long Island, New York community of her childhood where she first decided to become a reporter.

The funeral for the Sunday Times journalist killed while covering the slaughter of Syrian civilians was held at St. Dominic Roman Catholic Church in Oyster Bay.

The 56-year-old spoke her last words in a television dispatch from a village, while watching a baby boy dying. She said seeing the horror might "move people to think, why is this going on?"

At her wake on Sunday, mourners passed by a portrait of Colvin by a Sri Lankan artist. She lost her left eye in 2001 in that country's civil war and wore her signature eye patch since then.


The British government has ordered an investigation into Colvin's death to build a war-crimes case against Syrian dictator Bashar Assad.

Colvin was killed on February 22 when the building that served as a makeshift media centre in the village of Homs was struck by a Syrian army mortar.

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Only a few hours earlier, she appeared in a final live broadcast with CNN's Anderson Cooper, telling him the Syrians were shelling "a city of cold, starving civilians."


"It's a complete and utter lie that they are only going after terrorists," she added. "There are no military targets here."

The victims were civilians.

"Absolutely horrific, a two-year old child had been hit," Colvin said. "His little tummy just kept heaving until he died."

It was a challenge to get Colvin's body out of Syria amid the violence. A Polish diplomat received it from the International Red Cross, flying them home to New York via Paris.

She is is survived by two brothers, two sisters, and her mother, who lived in East Norwich, Long Island, near Oyster Bay.