BEIRUT: Basil al-Sayed, a leading citizen journalist in Syria, died in the hospital Thursday of wounds sustained in the restive city of Homs, which has become a hub of the country’s popular uprising, reported National Public Radio.

The 24-year-old cameraman had consistently filmed security forces cracking down on civilians, which put him risk.

"He was documenting stuff that no one could actually get hold of," fellow activist Rami Jarrah told NPR. "I don't want to say this was expected, but he was always in those situations where you could expect something would happen to him."

His last known video was taken at a checkpoint in the district of Bab Amr in Homs, an area that has captured headlines lately for violent clashes between protesters and the Syrian military.

With foreign journalists largely banned from Syria, and with local official media working under severe restrictions, most news stations have had to rely on citizen journalists for coverage of the country’s protest movement.

Since the outbreak of Syria’s popular uprising, which began March 15, the United Nations estimates that more than 5,000 people, mainly civilians, have been killed. The Syrian government claims that the ongoing violence is due to armed gangs.