ALEPPO – A video of a dazed and bloodied Syrian boy, rescued from the rubbles of a destroyed building after an air strike on besieged Aleppo, has caused outrage around the world, with many sharing it widely on social media.
The video, posted online by the Aleppo Media Center, shows a stunned and weary-looking boy, sitting alone and bewildered on an orange chair inside an ambulance shortly after he was rescued.
He was identified as five-year-old Omran Daqneesh, who was treated for head wounds on Wednesday, doctors said.
The pro-opposition Aleppo Media Center said the pictures of Omran had been taken in the rebel-held Qaterji district late on Wednesday, reportedly following Russian air strikes that killed at least three people and injured 12 others.
The shell-shocked boy’s image has prompted an outpouring of anger at the continuing fighting and lack of proper response from the international community.
“The stunned, bloodied face of a child survivor sums up the horror of Aleppo,” tweeted Adib Shishakly, a member of the opposition Syrian National Council.
Turkish-based commentator Omar Madaniah wrote: “A boy has come out from underneath the rubble in Aleppo after Russian airplanes targeted him. This is the terrorist that all states are uniting against.”
Saudi media figure Jamal Khashoggi tweeted: “It is as if he is sitting at the Arab summit or the Security Council chiding those who are silent with his own silence and looks.”
In the fifth year of conflict in Syria, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has released a new report that the number of children affected by the civil war in Syria has more than doubled over the past year.
UNICEF said the child casualty rates were the highest recorded in any recent conflict in the region.
It cited UN figures that at least 10,000 children have been killed in the Syrian war but noted that the real number is probably higher.
The opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has said that more than 136,000 have been killed since a revolt against President Bashar al-Assad began in March 2011.
Angry tweets included the following:
