New York, US: Coverage of the wars in Afghanistan and Syria, the ensuing refugee crisis and the rise of the Islamic State extremist group won a string of categories in America’s Pulitzer Prizes on Monday.

Photographers from The New York Times and Thomson Reuters shared the breaking news photography award for their coverage of the unprecedented refugee crisis, fueled primarily by the war in Syria.

Alissa Rubin of The New York Times won the international reporting prize for her coverage of Afghan women, more than 14 years after the US-led invasion to bring down the Taliban, announced the Pulitzer committee at Columbia University.

The Los Angeles Times won the breaking news category for the coverage of the killings in San Bernardino, where Syed Farook and wife Tashfeen Malik killed 14 people on 2 December, 2015 before dying in a firefight with police.

The prize for non-fiction was won by Joby Warrick for his book ‘Black Flags: The Rise of ISIS’ and its assessment of the ‘flawed rationale’ of the Iraq war and the rise of the IS extremist group, the committee said.

US wire service, The Associated Press, won the coveted award for public service journalism for investigating labor abuses tied to the supply of seafood in America, reporting that freed 2,000 slaves.

On domestic American news, outlets in Florida scooped three Pulitzer Prizes. The Tampa Bay Times and Sarasota Herald Tribune won for their investigation into violence and neglect in Florida mental hospitals.

The Tampa Bay Times scooped a second Pulitzer for exposing a local school board’s role in turning some schools into failure factories.

John Hackworth of Sun Newspapers, Charlotte Harbor, Florida won for editorial writing over the deadly assault of an inmate by corrections officers.

The US national reporting category was won by The Washington Post staff for their coverage of how often and why police shoot to kill.

Lin-Manuel Miranda won in the drama category for hit Broadway musical ‘Hamilton,’ which has become the hottest ticket in New York.