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Japanese reporter shot dead in Syria

. AFP
A veteran Japanese war reporter died after she was shot in the neck when coming under fire from up to 15 apparently pro-government troops in Syria's second city, a colleague said on Tuesday.
Mika Yamamoto was covering the anti-regime movement in Aleppo, which has borne the brunt of the conflict since fighting erupted there last month, her long-time colleague Kazutaka Sato told Japanese broadcasters.
The death of the 45-year-old takes to four the number of foreign journalists who have lost their lives in the country since the uprising began against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad in March 2011.
Yamamoto is the first of them to die in Aleppo, with the other three-two French men and an American woman-killed in Homs. Her death was confirmed by Japan's foreign ministry.
Three other journalists were also reportedly missing on Tuesday, two of them from a US-funded Arabic language broadcaster. It was not clear if the incidents were connected.
Sato, a colleague from the small but respected Japan Press, said he and Yamamoto had been with anti-regime forces when they were shot at on Monday by what appeared to be government soldiers.