When photojournalist Shin Yahiro heard compatriot video reporter Mika Yamamoto was killed in late August in Aleppo, he was not surprised, because he too has come under fire while covering the civil war raging in Syria.
Yahiro had never met Yamamoto but learned from a friend's email that she was gunned down while he also was covering the war in Azaz.
"Anybody can die in Syria, with the war escalating," said Yahiro, 32, who like Yamamoto was also embedded with the Free Syrian Army (FSA) in Aleppo last month. There were many occasions when Yahiro thought he would die, as the battalion he was with came under tank fire four times during his 10-day reporting stint.