Haunting image of boy in an Aleppo ambulance captures plight of children caught in Syrian war
Once again, the haunting image of a little boy has become an emblem of Syria’s wartime suffering.
But amid a worldwide outpouring of grief and outrage at the sight of Omran Daqneesh — a small, silent, solitary figure, seated bloodied and dazed in the back of an ambulance in his ravaged hometown of Aleppo — the fighting ground steadily onward, spurring even a polished veteran diplomat to rail in despair over stalled humanitarian efforts.
For many who saw the video and still photos online, the sight was reminiscent of the image that circulated nearly a year ago of a Syrian toddler whose tiny drowned corpse washed up on a Turkish beach — three-year-old Aylan Kurdi, one small casualty of the enormous exodus driven by the savagery of the country’s multi-sided conflict.
As then, the little boy’s back story took time to emerge, with some details still unclear. Medical officials and activists identified Omran by name and put his age at either 4 or 5, although the photographer-activist who captured the scene said the last name Daqneesh was a pseudonym to protect the family’s privacy.
Shocking images of suffering are documented daily and hourly in Syria, including many of injured children such as Omran, but it was not hard to see why this one captured worldwide attention. In the video, the barefoot boy is clad in shorts and a cartoon-emblazoned T-shirt — just like any kindergartner anywhere on a hot summer’s evening — lending the chaotic events an incongruous touch of childhood familiarity, right down to his slightly pigeon-toed pose.