Stunned, bloodied face of Syrian boy haunts social media

Syrian opposition activists released a haunting portrait of a Syrian boy who survived an airstrike in the Syrian city of Aleppo Eight deaths have been reported so far, five of them being children

Syrian opposition activists have released haunting footage showing a young boy rescued from the rubble in the aftermath of a devastating airstrike in Aleppo.The image of the stunned and weary looking boy, sitting on an orange chair inside an ambulance covered in dust and with blood on his face, encapsulates the horrors inflicted on the war-ravaged northern city and is being widely shared on social media.

A doctor in Aleppo on Thursday identified the boy as 5-year-old Omran Daqneesh. Osama Abu al-Ezz confirmed he was brought to the hospital M10 following an airstrike on the rebel-held neighbourhood of Qaterji with head wounds, but no brain injury, and was later discharged.

Rescue workers and journalists arrived at Qaterji shortly after the strike and began pulling victims from the rubble. "We were passing them from one balcony to the other," said photojournalist Mahmoud Raslan, who took the iconic photo. He said he had passed along three lifeless bodies before receiving the wounded boy.

Eight deaths have been reported so far, five of them being children. Omran was rescued along with his three siblings and his mother and father from the rubble of their partially destroyed apartment building.None of them sustained major injuries, but the building collapsed shortly after the family was rescued.

In the video posted late Wednesday by the Aleppo Media Center, a man is seen plucking the boy away from a chaotic night-time scene and carrying him inside the ambulance, looking
dazed and flat-eyed.

The boy then runs his hand over his blood-covered face, looks at his hands and wipes them on the ambulance chair.

Doctors in Aleppo use code names for hospitals, which they say have been systematically targeted by government airstrikes. Abu al-Ezz said they do that "because we are afraid security forces will infiltrate their medical network and target ambulances as they transfer patients from one hospital to another."

Activists living in opposition areas rely on informers in the government-controlled Latakia province to warn residents of impending airstrikes.