
Warning. This article contains distressing content.
If Donald Trump’s presidency could be represented in a single image, a picture of a 13-year-old boy yelling at his father to stop the burning would be it.
Last week, the cries of a Kurdish boy named Mohammed Hamid Mohammed covered in what are believed to be chemical burns could be heard ringing through the halls of a hospital in Tal Tamr, a small town in northeastern Syria.
The night before, late on Wednesday evening, a Turkish airstrike targeted the city of Ras al-Ayn.
Hamid Mohammed, the father of the 13-year-old boy, heard the jet heading towards their home before he felt it.
And then there was a bang.
Chaos. Bodies on fire. Groans and shrieks. The scenes that followed were the kind that imprint themselves on a person.
Mohammed found his children. Except for the son who shared his name.
Moments later, he appeared. The 13-year-old was on fire.
It would be 12 hours before Mohammed would see a doctor. His skin melted while he waited.
More than 70 per cent of his body was burned, and it’s unlikely that Mohammed will survive with the treatment available to him.
The screams of Mohammed – which reduced medical staff to tears – may have been lost to history, like those of so many girls and boys before him, if it weren’t for a Times journalist who was in the hospital.
