A teenage photographer whose images of war-torn Syria were circulated around the world has been killed while covering a conflict at a hospital.
Molhem Barakat (17) died on Friday as he took photographs of rebel fighters and Government forces battling over the Kindi Hospital in Aleppo, which had allegedly been turned into a regime barracks.
The 17-year-old, who worked for news agency Reuters on a freelance basis, took dozens of photographs capturing the city's unrelenting violence.
His portfolio is equally weighted with images depicting civilian life in the divided city. The teenager had been sending images to Reuters since May, with many of his photographs being published around the world.
According to his Facebook profile, Molhem was originally from Istanbul but went to school in the city before starting work as a freelance photographer. Social media has been inundated with tributes praising the aspiring photographer's bravery.
Many, written in Arabic, bless the teen whose work is described as 'inspiring'.
Journalists from around the world have expressed shock and sadness at the news, with thousands retweeting Reuters' announcement of the youngster's death. The conflict raged on in the country's largest city today as Syrian aircraft shelled residential areas with explosives-filled barrels, killing dozens of people.
The raid, which is widely condemned as unlawful, was particularly deadly in three opposition districts where at least 44 were killed including six children, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Hundreds of people have been killed in the past week as regime aircraft dropped TNT-filled barrels on the country's one-time commercial hub.
The Observatory claimed those in Hanano, Ahmadiyeh and Haydariyeh were worse affected with the death toll expected to rise further. Director, Rami Abdel Rahman, said President Bashar al-Assad's regime 'is trying to turn people in opposition areas against the rebels. 'It is killing and forcing people to flee in order to secure that goal'.
Aleppo's opposition Provincial Council said schools would be closed for a week as a result of the 'systematic, deliberate bombing' at hand. Elsewhere, a car bombing in the Shiite village of Omm al-Amd in the central province of Homs claimed the lives of eight people including six children, state media reported.
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