Anas Alkharboutli was fatally injured in a missile attack just four days before the president fled to Russia. His colleagues and friends explain why his life was more exceptional than his death

The war was almost over when death came for Anas Alkharboutli. On 4 December last year, Bashar al-Assad’s forces, on the brink of collapse, killed the photojournalist in an airstrike near Hama. He was 32 years old.

“We were excited to go to the frontline,” says Omar Haj Kadour, a photographer who was with Alkharboutli on the day he was killed. “Things were finally going well for the opposition.”

Anas Alkharboutli (right) with his colleague Omar Haj Kadour. Photograph: Omar Haj Kadour