According to the company's website Ms Yamamoto, who joined Japan Press in 1995, had experience covering war and conflict in both Afghanistan and the Iraq. Ms Yamamoto is one of several foreign journalist to have died in Syria since March 2011. Sunday Times reporter Marie Colvin, an American, and award-winning French photographer Remi Ochlik died in Homs in February. The month before, in January, French television journalist Gilles Jacquier was killed in Homs while visiting the city on a government-organised trip. The United Nations says more than 18,000 people have been killed in the conflict, 170,000 have fled Syria and 2.5 million need aid within the country. Source: BBC