Dylan Collins is the chief video journalist in Beirut for the French news agency Agence France-Press (AFP) and the video coverage coordinator for Lebanon and Syria. A fluent Arabic speaker, he has been based in the Middle East for nearly 15 years and has reported on conflicts in the region and beyond, including the Gaza Strip, Iraq, Syria, Ukraine, Nagorno-Karabakh and Lebanon.
Dylan, an American, arrived in Ukraine on the second day of the Russian invasion in February 2022 and covered the ensuing war for the next two months. On 24 July 2023, on his third reporting trip covering the Ukraine war, he was seriously wounded in a Russian drone attack on the outskirts of the flashpoint town of Bakhmut.
After recovering from his injuries, he returned to Lebanon and covered the escalation between Israel and Hezbollah along the southern border following the 7 October Hamas attacks. On 13 October 2023, Dylan was among a group of seven journalists targeted twice by Israeli forces. Reuters journalist Issam Abdallah was killed instantly in the attack. AFP photographer Christina Assi was severely wounded, leading to the amputation of her right leg. Dylan and four other journalists sustained shrapnel wounds. Investigations by AFP, Reuters, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, UNIFIL and Reporters Without Borders found Israeli forces fired the two strikes.