VIDEO: Child who survived a Russian/Regime airstrike tonight in #Aleppo – @Sophiemcneill pic.twitter.com/yBcoqKeDCl
— Conflict News (@Conflicts) August 17, 2016
In one image, this confused, hurt little boy captures the absolute horror that continues to unfold each day in Aleppo, in full view of the world. Omran Daqneesh sits dazed in the back of an ambulance having just been pulled from the rubble of his home. Looking lost, he wipes his dusty forehead, before realising his hand is covered in blood. Doctors with the Syrian American Medical Society who treated the boy tell the ABC his name, and that he is 5 years old. The photos and video of Omran, which have gone viral, were taken on Wednesday night in the besieged rebel-held eastern suburbs of Aleppo. Doctors say Omran had head wounds and was discharged from the M10 hospital. Video taken by the Aleppo Media Centre showed the moment Omran was rescued along with three other small children from the rubble of a house after an air strike, by volunteers from Syria’s Civil Defence group known as the White Helmets. Doctors tell the ABC they don’t know what happened to Omran’s parents, but that he was brought in to the hospital by four young men. One of the major battlegrounds of Syria’s devastating civil war, the city of Aleppo is split between western areas held by the Government, backed by Russian warplanes, and eastern regions held by rebels. Fighting between the two groups has intensified since mid-July. raising fears for the safety of an estimated 1.5 million civilians still in the city.