Armed fighters at Nayrab military airport in Aleppo. Three days after this photo was taken, dpa photographer Anas Alkharboutli was killed near the city of Hama in an attack by a fighter jet.

ALEPPO 02.12.2024

Anas Alkharboutli
Syria (1992–2024)

The terrible news reached dpa on the morning of December 5, 2024: Our photographer and colleague Anas Alkharboutli had been killed in an attack by a fighter jet near the Syrian city of Hama. He had most recently been reporting on the renewed civil war and the advance of the HTS rebel alliance.

Anas Alkharboutli joined dpa as a photographer in 2017. He reported primarily from the Syrian civil war zone. In 2020, he was awarded the Young Reporter Trophy of the renowned French Prix Bayeux for war reporting. At the Sony World Photography Awards in 2021, the dpa photographer won in the sports category with a series of images of children at karate training.

All of us at dpa are greatly committed to honouring his journalistic legacy. With his photographs, Anas Alkharboutli not only documented the horrors of war, he always worked for the truth. He remains a role model for our committed, non-partisan and independent reporting.

Among the last photos that Anas Alkharboutli sent to Berlin was the impressive shot of rebels posing on a military aircraft in Aleppo. Just a few days later, Syria’s long-time ruler Assad fled to Moscow.

In memory of Anas Alkharboutli, dpa honoured his outstanding work with an internal exhibition at its Berlin newsroom. He was buried in Idlib at the age of just 32.

Text: Silke Brüggemeier, Deputy Editor-in-Chief and Head of Visuals