Bloodied Young Boy Becomes Face of Suffering in Aleppo

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Bloodied Young Boy Becomes Face of Suffering in Aleppo

Five-year-old Omran Daqneesh sits silently and in shock in the seat of an ambulance. He is covered from head to toe in dust, a red streak down one side of his face. He reaches for the side of his head and notices his wound, wiping the blood nervously on the chair in which he sits.

Doctor in #Aleppo just sent this photo of a dazed child who survived an airstrike pic.twitter.com/IHLDc6KPh8

— Raf Sanchez (@rafsanchez) August 17, 2016

Moments earlier, he was pulled from the wreckage of his home in the Qaterji neighborhood of eastern Aleppo, destroyed by an airstrike carried out by Syrian government or Russian forces in the middle of the night. Four other children, one woman and two men were also injured in the same strike.

The image of Omran, shared thousands of times on social media, is a reminder of the daily hell that is Aleppo, which is currently at the center of a fierce battle between rebels and government forces and its allies. It was taken from this accompanying video, distributed by the Aleppo Media Center.

The bombardment of the rebel-held east of the city has increased dramatically since an alliance of rebel groups, among them Jabhat Fatah al-Sham — which was until recently a branch of Al Qaeda — broke a government-imposed siege earlier this month.

Hospitals and medical facilities have not been spared by the daily bombardment. On Monday, the president of the International Committee of the Red Cross, Peter Maurer, called the battle for Aleppo “one of the most devastating urban conflicts in modern times.”

Doctors working in eastern Aleppo said Omran was treated for his head wound and discharged without any serious injury. They added 12 other children under the age of 15 were brought to the same hospital on Wednesday after airstrikes battered the city.

On Thursday, another child would not survive another attack in the Saleheen neighborhood of the city. Doctors in the M2 hospital said they had tried to resuscitate a young boy injured in a strike, but were unsuccessful.

On the same day, Syrian state news agency SANA reported that 10 civilians were killed by rebel rocket fire in government-held western Aleppo.

As the fighting intensifies in Aleppo, Syrians and activists trapped inside the city have expressed frustration with the international community for not doing more to stop the killing.

The drowning of Aylan Kurdi didn’t move the world to action. The terror in little Omran’s eyes in #Aleppo won’t either.

— Joey Ayoub جووي أيوب (@joeyayoub) August 18, 2016

In recent days, Russia signalled that it was close to reaching a deal with the US on fighting the Islamic State group in the Aleppo area.

Last month, Secretary of State John Kerry and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov announced a deal that would see them cooperate on Jabhat al-Nusra, which has since changed its name to Jabhat Fatah al-Sham and broke ties with Al Qaeda.

Russia has frequently bombed not just Jabhat Fatah al-Sham, but also rebel groups backed by the US. The deal would require Russia to only bomb targets agreed upon with the US, and would remove the Syrian air force from the skies. Opposition activists and fighters have criticized the deal because it would benefit Bashar al-Assad by targeting one of the most effective fighting forces against the Syrian president. Many rebel groups oppose the extremist ideology of Jabhat Fatah al-Sham, but have been forced into an alliance with it to survive.

This article first appeared on PRI’s The World.

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