Picture credit: © AFP/ Fabio Bucciarelli

Fabio Bucciarelli, a freelance photographer for Agence France-Presse, was awarded the accolade for a series of 12 images submitted under the title ‘Battle to Death’.

The award was handed out by the Overseas Press Club of America for the ‘best published photographic reporting from abroad requiring exceptional courage and enterprise’.

Judges said the images of Syrian rebels, which Bucciarelli photographed in Aleppo last year, put you ‘in the moment’ and have a ‘palatable sense of urgency’.

The citation adds: ‘There is a consistency to the images that helps the viewer identify with the subjects and the perils they are encountering.

‘Syria has been one of the deadliest locations for journalists since the beginning of this armed conflict, and this photographer embodies the finest values of the Capa Award in this collection of images.’

The 32-year-old, who specialised in digital imagery as part of an engineering degree, began his career in photojournalism in 2009.

The award is named after war photographer Robert Capa who became a co-founder of the famed picture agency Magnum Photos.

Capa died while covering the Indochina War in 1954.