Syria civil war: The picture which shows the suffering of the children of Aleppo
Air strikes have been intensifying in the embattled city
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Your support makes all the difference.This is the picture which shows the horror of the civilian suffering in Aleppo, and has shocked even hardened observers of the conflict.
Shared widely on social media, it displays five-year-old Omran Daqneesh dazed and bloody after a bombing by government or Russian planes on the Qaterji neighbourhood, in rebel-held eastern Aleppo.
The district has been heavily hit recently by air strikes as government forces fight to secure control over the embattled city from rebel factions.
A video shot by media activists showed Omran being lifted from a house, covered in grey dust, and placed on a seat in an ambulance, before rescuers leave him to go back to the scene. Omran is left alone in the chair, staring blankly, before rubbing his bloodied head.
Shortly after, two more children are seen in the ambulance. In total, four children, two men and a woman were reportedly hurt in the explosion.
Omran was taken to the M10 hospital in the city and later discharged. Another photo of him was taken after he had been seen by doctors.
The images of the child struck a chord on social media. “We can get numb seeing dead and injured children remotely day after day,” said journalist Anne Barnard on Facebook, “but some pictures particularly get to the mom in me and this is one. The orange chair. The expression. I want to give him a hug”.
On Twitter, Sima Diab said: “What was your five-year-old son doing today? Mine was playing football. Not Omran, he was saved from an air strike in Syria.”
Aleppo has been the scene of intense fighting in recent weeks between rebel groups and government and Russian forces.
On the same day, rebel rocket rounds killed 10 civilians and wounded nine in a government-controlled district elsewhere in Aleppo, according to Syria's state-run SANA news agency.
Also on Wednesday, presumed Russian or Syrian government air strikes on the rebel-held city of Idlib in the northwest killed 17 people and wounded at least 30 others, the Civil Defence branch for the province reported.
A video posted on the group's website showed rescue workers pulling bodies from wreckage along a heavily damaged street. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also reported the strikes, saying dozens of civilians were killed and wounded.
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