Goran Tomasevic adds to his news photography trophies

Goran Tomasevic (photo)​, has won first prize in the Spot News category at the 2014 World Press Photos awards for a series of images from Syria’s civil war.

The pictures, taken in a district of Damascus in January 2013, show rebels preparing to attack an army checkpoint when their commander is shot by a sniper. Wounded and bleeding, he is carried away by his comrades, who then return to attack the post but come under tank shelling. A wall they are sheltering behind explodes in a cloud of debris and concrete dust. As the smoke subsides, they return to their comrade, who has died of his wounds.

Tomasevic, who is from Serbia and based in Kenya as Reuters’ chief photographer for East Africa, has covered conflict for more than 20 years in countries including Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Egypt and Syria. The Guardian named him its agency photographer of the year in January for work that included coverage of the conflict in Syria and the Westgate shopping centre attack in Nairobi.

More than 5,700 photographers from 132 countries submitted entries to this year’s World Press Photo contest, for which the jury selected 53 winners in 18 categories. The top award, World Press Photo of the Year, went to American photographer John Stanmeyer for his image of African migrants on the shore of Djibouti raising their cell phones in an attempt to capture an inexpensive signal from Somalia.

Goran Tomasevic’s award-winning photos ■