© Time/Photo by Alessio Romenzi

With Syria strictly limiting access to foreign press, most foreign journalists trying to report on the uprising in Homs, Syria, have had to remain in nearby Lebanon while relaying reports from locals on the scene.  Italian photojournalist Alessio Romenzi, however, has managed to move through the besieged city. More than two dozen of his images of civilian casualties, women and children taking shelter during shelling, and fighting between the army of the Assad government and the rebel Free Syrian Army were posted today on Time’s Lightbox. Patrick Witty, Time‘s International Picture Editor, edited the pictures.

Romenzi, whose previous work from the Middle East and elsewhere has been published in Time, The New York Times, Washington Post, Le Monde and other publications, has been in Al Qsair and Homs, Syria, since late January. Previous posts to his PhotoShelter page include his images of Syrian journalists as they have tried to file reports on the fighting.

On assignment for Time, he has moved among fighters in the Free Syrian Army and at one point he took shelter from the shelling in the basement of a home in the southern Homs neighborhood of Bab Amr, according to a report on Lightbox. He reported seeing 25 civilian casualties in two hours of shelling. In an email to Time he wrote, “The word ‘safe’ is not in our dictionary these days.”

*Update:
The Committee to Protect Journalists reported on February 8 that Syrian journalist Mazhar Tayyara, a stringer for AFP and other news organizations, was killed in Homs on February 4, when the Syrian government shelled the neighborhood he was reporting from.  “The Syrian conflict is growing increasingly dangerous for all kinds of journalists, from citizens who have taken the role of documenting unrest in the country to international journalists who report from the frontlines,” says the CPJ.

Syrian authorities have released Reuters photographer Khaled al-Hariri, who had been missing since Sunday March 27, Reuters reports.

Al-Hariri, a Syrian who has worked for the Reuters for more than 20 years, was on his way to work at the Damascus office of the agency when a witness saw him stopped by two men who then lead him away.  A Syrian official told the agency last week he would be released “if there was no evidence against him.”

“Reuters is relieved that Khaled al-Hariri has been released,” Reuters editor-in-chief Stephen Adler said in a statement issued on Monday. “Thankfully he has now safely returned home to his family.”

Al-Hariri is one of several journalists who have been detained in the past week and a half in Syria, where protesters have taken to the streets to demonstrate against President Bashar al-Assad.  Two Lebanese television journalist and a Jordanian reporter were held for two to three days and then deported.  Another Jordanian reporter with Reuters was immediately expelled from the country without being detained. The AP has reported that two of its journalists were ordered out of Syria with less than an hour’s notice.