BEIRUT: The Samir Kassir eyes (Skeyes) center denounced Wednesday the killing of Western reporters Marie Colvin of the U.S. and French photographer Remi Ochlik in the besieged Syrian city of Homs Wednesday and called for swift action to end the bloodshed in the crisis-ridden country.

“Skeyes denounces the terrifying massacre that was committed by the Syrian Army, whether intentional or not, against the journalists through its mad and indiscriminate shelling on civilian populations,” a statement by the media watchdog said.

Colvin and Ochlik were killed in Homs Wednesday when rockets fired by government forces hit the house they were staying in, opposition activists and witnesses said.

Skeyes said the attack on the journalists, which also led to the wounding of other reporters, “appears to be a massacre after shells fell on a mobile media center during Syrian Army shelling of Baba Amr [neighborhood].”

It said the attack had come just a day after the killing of Syrian photographer Rami Ahmad Sayyed, 26, who “also died in the same area after a missile struck the vehicle he was in that was transporting wounded family members to a hospital.”

The Committee to Protect Journalists and Reporters Without Borders have also documented the deaths of at least four other Syrian journalists.

In January, Gilles Jacquier, of the French TV station France 2, was killed while on a government-authorized reporting visit to Homs.

Syria has banned most foreign journalists from reporting in the tightly controlled state since the beginning of the uprising in March 2011. Damascus has started issuing short-term visas for a limited number of journalists, who are allowed to move around but accompanied by government minders.

Skeyes called Wednesday on the international community and relevant parties to help end the crisis in Syria, which the United Nations says has claimed over 5,400 people, mostly civilian.

“We call on the international community and relevant international human rights groups, particularly those dealing with the safety of reporters and protection of their rights, as well as the home countries of the wounded and slain reporters of the need for immediate action and pressure at the international level to halt the blood bath before the situation deteriorates further,” Skeyes said.

The watchdog also called for the prosecution of those behind the attacks on journalists and civilians saying these attacks were tantamount“war crimes” and “crimes against humanity.”