Syria President Bashar Assad's forces allegedly targeted veteran war correspondent Marie Colvin

Syria President Bashar Assad's forces allegedly targeted veteran war correspondent Marie Colvin and then celebrated after they learned their rockets had killed her.

This is according to a sworn statement a former Syrian intelligence officer made in a wrongful death suit filed by her relatives.

The 56-year-old Sunday Times reporter died alongside French photographer Remi Ochlik, 28, in a rocket attack on the besieged city of Homs.

The intelligence defector, code named Ulysses, says Assad's military and intelligence officials sought to capture or kill journalists and media activists in Homs.

The city was at the centre of the pro-democratic revolution that erupted across Syria in the spring of 2011.

He said that when Ms Colvin's death was confirmed, Syrian Major General Rafiq Shahadah exclaimed: 'Marie Colvin was a dog and now she's dead. Let the Americans help her now.'

At that time, Maj Gen Shahadah was a security official in Homs. He now runs the Syrian military intelligence directorate.

The Syrian government has not responded to the lawsuit, but Assad has denied that his forces targeted and killed Ms Colvin in 2012 to silence her reporting on the conflict.

The New York City native was reporting on the Syrian government's bombing of residential areas when she was killed by a rocket attack on a media centre.

After learning that Western journalists were arriving in Baba Amr from Lebanon, Syrian forces were ordered to intercept their communications, track their movements and locate their media centre so they could be captured or killed, according to the lawsuit.

The Syrian forces used a mobile satellite interception device that could tap broadcast signals and locate their origin, the lawsuit said.

Still, Syrian forces were not able to locate the media centre, which was on the ground floor of a three-storey apartment building.

The journalists were using a clandestine satellite and proxy internet services to mask their location.

Ms Colvin and photographer Paul Conroy sneaked into Homs through an underground water tunnel.

In Baba Amr, they toured a field hospital and a cellar called the 'widow's basement' where mostly women and children sought shelter from the bombs.

They fled through the same tunnel and filed a story, which was published on February 19 2012.

The next day, the two returned to the media centre where they witnessed even heavier shelling that kept them from fleeing.

They stayed and on February 21 2012, Ms Colvin gave live interviews over the media centre's satellite link to the BBC and CNN. Syrian forces were 'shelling with impunity and a merciless disregard for the civilians who simply cannot escape', she said.

That day, an informant told Syrian intelligence officers the location of the media centre.

That corresponded with information the intelligence officers had obtained from their satellite interception device, which had pinpointed that same location as the place where Ms Colvin did her broadcast interviews with the BBC and CNN, the lawsuit said.

At about 9.30am local time on February 22 2012 the centre was destroyed by several rockets.

Ms Colvin and French photographer Remi Ochlik were killed and several other people were injured.

The defector's deposition includes a flow chart identifying eight Syrian officials who were involved in the attack on the media centre where Ms Colvin was killed.

He said this includes Assad's brother, Maher, who leads the army's elite 4th Armoured Division.

The defector claims Assad's brother gave one of the eight officials a new, black Hyundai Genesis as 'a reward for the successful operation' against the media centre in Baba Amr, a working-class neighbourhood of Homs.

The 55-year-old Sunday Times reporter died alongside French photographer Remi Ochlik, 28, in a rocket attack on the besieged city of Homs

Ms Colvin had years of experience in war zones, covering conflicts in Chechnya, Kosovo, Sierra Leone, Zimbabwe, East Timor and Sri Lanka, where she lost the sight in her left eye in a blast.

The black patch she wore over her eye became her trademark.

Her sister is seeking an undetermined amount for the emotional pain of losing her sister, compensatory damages for her three children, who are beneficiaries of Ms Colvin's estate, and punitive damages against the Syrian government.

So far, the Syrian government has not filed any response to the lawsuit.

'Their only response in this case is an interview Assad gave to NBC the week the suit was filed,' Mr Gilmore said.

'He issued first a blanket denial, and then stated that Marie had entered the country illegally, worked with terrorists and was responsible for everything that befell her.'

The Centre for Justice and Accountability, based in San Francisco, filed the wrongful death suit against Assad in 2016 on behalf of Ms Colvin's relatives, including her sister Cathleen.

The new court records became public after being unsealed by US District Judge Amy Berman Jackson.