An image has emerged of a former Reuters freelance photographer and Syrian hospital employee participating in the firing of a “Hell cannon” mortar.

An image in a Facebook album posted by Amer Alfaj – whose photos from Bab al-Hawa on the Syria-Turkish border have been published in The Daily Mail and The Telegraph – shows him attending the preparation of a mortar shortly before it fires a modified propane gas cylinder. Other of Alfaj’s Facebook photos, which date from 2013 when he was employed by Bab al-Hawa hospital [1], celebrate these munitions in repugnant manner.

Amer Alfaj (striped top and baseball cap) attends the launch of a Hell cannon mortar. (http://bit.ly/1ThP8sv)

Alfaj has tagged himself in the relevant image in the sequence (http://bit.ly/1WypwMd)

Further images on Alfaj’s Facebook account grotesquely celebrate “Hell cannon” mortars. 

Alfaj describes himself on Facebook as a “Former Freelance Photographer at Rueters” [sic]. In his Google+ profile…