Little Omran, 5, Becomes Symbol Of Desperation In Aleppo

 Footage of a Syrian boy sitting dazed in an ambulance goes viral as three more people die in an airstrike blamed on Russia
 

A Syrian boy rescued after an airstrike on Aleppo has become a symbol of the desperate situation in the city.

The boy was identified by doctors as Omran Daqneesh, a five-year-old brought to hospital with head wounds after Wednesday night's attack on the rebel-held district of Qaterji.
A video posted by the Aleppo Media Centre shows a man rescuing Omran and carrying him, dazed and bleeding, to a waiting ambulance.
Sitting on the orange chair in the back of the vehicle, Omran is seen running his hand over his face, looking at the blood on his hands and wiping it on the chair.
Two other children are then brought inside the ambulance.
 

Omran was reportedly rescued along with his three siblings, aged one, six and 11, and his mother and father after the strike partially destroyed their apartment building.
A building next to theirs was also ruined and rescuers spent many hours pulling survivors and victims from the debris.
It is understood there were two strikes, although the first did not injure anyone.
Photojournalist Mahmoud Raslan said an informant in Latakia had warned the city's activist network that a jet had taken off from the Russian air base at Hmeimim.
"We expected the plane to arrive in Aleppo airspace in two minutes - and it did," he added.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said three people died in the strike, which opposition monitoring group The Local Co-ordination Committees blamed on Russian warplanes.
Doctors say Omran was treated and later sent home.
The picture of him is reminiscent of the image of Aylan Kurdi, the little Syrian boy found dead on a Turkish beach and whose fate came to symbolise the desperation of the country's refugees.

 
More than 290,000 people have been killed and millions displaced in Syria's civil war, which began in 2011.
Since 2012, Aleppo has been torn between rebel control in the east and government forces in the city's west.
In mid-July, government forces regained control of the last supply road into rebel-held areas.
After three weeks of fierce fighting, rebels took the southern neighbourhood of Ramussa, cutting off government forces and opening up a new route for rebel fighters.
The Army of Conquest, a combination of Islamist, jihadist and rebel fighters, then announced their intention to capture the entire city.
On Thursday, Russia's defence ministry said it was willing to support a UN proposal for a weekly 48-hour humanitarian ceasefire in Aleppo beginning next week.