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Picture of Syrian boy injured in airstrike goes viral
8-23-2016
A photograph of a bloodied young boy injured in a devastating airstrike in the Syrian city of Aleppo has captured the attention of people around the world as it circulates through traditional and social media channels.
Syrian opposition activists released a photo of a boy, looking stunned and exhausted as he sat in an orange chair of an ambulance with his face covered with blood and dust.
A physician in Aleppo, Osama Abu al-Ezz, identified the boy Thursday as 5-year-old Omran Dagneesh. He confirmed the boy was taken to a hospital known as “M10” Wednesday night and treated for head wounds before being discharged.
The boy was injured after an airstrike on the rebel-held neighborhood of Qaterji. A doctor at M10 said that eight people were killed in the airstrike, including five children.
Shortly after the strike, rescue workers and journalists began pulling victims from the debris. Among the rescuers was photojournalist Mahmoud Raslan, who took the iconic photo that captured the barbarity of the war in Syria.
Raslan said the boy, his parents and his three siblings were rescued from the rubble of their partially destroyed apartment building. He said none of the family members sustained major injuries but the apartment building collapsed shortly after they were rescued.
Russia to support ceasefire
Meanwhile, Russia has indicated that it is ready to support a 48-hour cease-fire in Aleppo in order to allow aid deliveries.
The U.N. envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, has expressed frustration at the continuing violence preventing the delivery of humanitarian aid to those in need of help in the country’s many besieged areas.
He cut short a weekly meeting of the U.N. aid delivery task force Thursday in Geneva and said the group would reconvene next week with what he hoped would be discussion of action instead of “wishes or promises.”
“Not one single convoy in one month has reached any of the humanitarian besieged areas. Not one single convoy, and why? Because one thing, fighting,” de Mistura said.
He said achieving a 48-hour ceasefire would require big efforts by the United States, Russia and other countries with influence on Syria’s warring parties..
“Tomorrow is the World Humanitarian Day, and in Syria what we are hearing and seeing is only fighting, offensives, counter-offensives, rockets, barrel bombs, mortars, hellfire cannons, napalm, chlorine, snipers, airstrikes, suicide bombers,” de Mistura said.
The conflict in Syria has raged for more than five years with the United Nations estimating more than 400,000 deaths and 13.5 million in need of aid. There have been several rounds of U.N.-mediated peace talks as well as regular discussions among diplomats about how to end the fighting, but no real progress has been made.
Lisa Schlein contributed to this report from Geneva
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