Two Western journalists were killed Wednesday in the Syrian city of Homs amid heavy shelling from government forces, opposition activists said.

The Sunday Times of London said one of the journalists reportedly killed was reporter Marie Colvin — the only British newspaper journalist inside the embattled Homs neighborhood of Baba Amr.

And French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe confirmed journalist Remi Ochlik was killed in a bombing. He was 28.

The night before, Colvin was on air with CNN describing the horrific onslaught in Homs.

“The Syrian army is shelling the city of cold, starving civilians,” she told CNN’s Anderson Cooper.

Colvin, a veteran correspondent who also covered last year’s Libyan civil war, said the Syrian crisis was the worst conflict she had covered, partly because of the volume of ammunition and shelling falling on Homs.

“There’s a lot of snipers on the high buildings surrounding the Baba Amr neighborhood. You can sort of figure out where a sniper is, but you can’t figure out where a shell is going to land,” she said.

The deaths Wednesday followed that of New York Times reporter Anthony Shadid, who was reporting in eastern Syria when he died last week, apparently from an asthma attack, the newspaper said.

While violence erupting once again across the country Wednesday, Syrians pleading for help in stopping a government-led slaughter might have fresh hope, as the United States called for more international action and hinted that arming the opposition isn’t out of the question.

In Washington, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said the conflict under Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime demands reaction.

“We believe that we are in a situation where we — the international community — need to act in order to allow for the transition from Assad to a more democratic future for Syria to take place before the situation becomes too chaotic,” Carney told reporters Tuesday.

Asked about calls in recent days by Sens. John McCain, R-Arizona, and Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, for the United States to consider arming the opposition, Carney said, “We don’t want to take actions that would contribute to the further militarization of Syria, because that could take the country down a dangerous path.

“But we don’t rule out additional measures that, working with our international partners, that the international community might take,” he added.

U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland held out hope for a political solution, but she too cited the possibility of seeking “additional measures” in the absence of change.

“From our perspective, we don’t believe that it makes sense to contribute now to the further militarization of Syria. What we don’t want to see is the spiral of violence increase. That said, if we can’t get Assad to yield to the pressure that we are all bringing to bear, we may have to consider additional measures,” Nuland said.

While foreign officials spoke, Syrian government forces pounded the embattled city of Homs for the 18th consecutive day and tormented residents in several other cities, opposition activists said.

About 9,000 people have been killed — including 106 just Tuesday — since the government crackdown began almost one year ago, according to the opposition Local Coordination Committies of Syria.

At least 55 people were killed in Idlib, 45 in Homs, three in the Damascus suburbs, two in Deir Ezzor and one in Aleppo, the LCC said.

The Revolutionary Council of Homs said shelling blasted through homes in the city’s Baba Amr neighborhood, but “the number of those injured could not be estimated because of the nonstop bombing,” it said.

“This attack carried out by the Assad forces can be considered a real genocide, and all this is happening amid an electricity, water, and communication services outage, accompanied by the unavailability of food, baby formula and medicine. In this manner, even those who may survive the bombing, end up dying due to hunger or lack of medical care,” the group said.

But the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency reported Tuesday that “food and services are available in Homs,” and said “provocative channels are fabricating lies” to the contrary.

CNN cannot independently verify opposition or government reports of casualties because the government has severely limited access to the country by foreign journalists.

But the vast majority of accounts from inside Syria indicate al-Assad’s forces are slaughtering civilians in an attempt to wipe out opposition members, who are demanding his ouster and democratic reforms.

Colvin, in her interview the night before her death, described the heartbreak of watching a young boy die after being struck in the chest by shrapnel — one of the many children killed in the conflict.

She said it was important to share his story and images.

“That little baby is one of two children who died today,” Colvin said. “That baby probably will move more people to think, what is going on, and why is no one stopping this murder in Homs that is happening everyday?”

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