Anas Alkharboutli, 32, who worked as a photographer for the German agency dpa, was killed in an airstrike by the Syrian military forces in the town of Morek, near the western city of Hama, while covering the recent battles between government and rebel forces, according to multiple news reports, his outlet, and his colleague Ghiath Al-Sayed, who spoke to CPJ.
Alkharboutli studied engineering at the University of Damascus, his hometown, and started working in photojournalism in 2015, according to those sources. He joined the agency in 2017, as a photographer in the Middle East, and has been covering “primarily the Syrian civil war zone,” dpa said, adding that “in the past few days, his pictures have been seen around the world, as Anas was reporting on the new flare-up of the civil war and the advance of the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) rebel alliance.
"All of us at dpa are in shock and deeply saddened by the death of Anas Alkharboutli," said dpa editor-in-chief Sven Gösmann in their statement. "We will honor his journalistic legacy. With his pictures, he not only documented the horrors of war, but always worked for the truth. Anas remains a role model for our work. Our thoughts are with his family and friends."
Ghaith Al-Sayed, a Syrian freelance camera operator working with the Associated Press, told CPJ via messaging app that he and other journalists “had agreed to regroup with other colleagues to head to Morek for coverage. I was with two other colleagues in a car parked near a bridge close to the city, while Anas Alkharboutli and two others were in a separate car. When a jet passed overhead, we got out to film it. Shortly after, the [Syrian army jet] circled back, spotted us, and fired two missiles directly at our position.”
The attack resulted in Alkharboutli sustaining fatal injuries to his lower limbs. “No one else was harmed,” Al-Sayed noted.
Al-Sayed emphasized that all the journalists, including Alkharboutli, were equipped with personal protective gear marked with "Press" insignia, such as vests and helmets. However, he added, “Our vehicles did not have press logos.”
CPJ emailed the Syrian ministries of information and defense for comment but didn’t immediately receive any response.
In 2020, Alkharboutli received the Young Reporter Trophy of France’s prestigious Bayeux Award for war reporting. In 2021, he won the spot news award in the Asia Pictures of the Year for an image of a Syrian man mourning a boy killed in an airstrike. At the 2021 Sony World Photography Awards, he won the sports category with an evocative photo series of children doing karate.
Alkharboutli was buried in Idlib on December 4, 2024.
Alkharboutli’s friends posted on social media platforms mourning him.