Police on Sunday conducted an autopsy in Tokyo on the body of a Japanese journalist who was killed while covering Syria's civil war.
Mika Yamamoto, 45, an award-winning journalist, was shot dead Monday in Aleppo during a clash believed to have been between rebels and forces loyal to President Bashar Assad's regime.
Police sources said they found at least nine bullet wounds on her body, which was delivered to the hospital from her home in Tokyo after being brought back to Japan on Saturday.
The police are thinking of treating her death as a murder case based on penal code provisions on crimes committed against Japanese abroad.
Following the autopsy in Tokyo, the body will be taken to her parents' home in Yamanashi Prefecture, the sources said.