Haunting image of Syrian boy rescued from Aleppo rubble

Beirut, Aug 18 (AP) Syrian opposition activists havereleased haunting footage showing a young boy rescued from therubble in the aftermath of a devastating airstrike in Aleppo. The image of the stunned and weary looking boy, sitting inan orange chair inside an ambulance covered in dust and withblood on his face, encapsulates the horrors inflicted on thewar-ravaged northern city and is being widely shared on socialmedia. A doctor in Aleppo on Thursday identified the boy as5-year-old Omran Daqneesh. Osama Abu al-Ezz confirmed he wasbrought to the hospital known as "M10" Wednesday nightfollowing an airstrike on the rebel-held neighborhood ofQaterji with head wounds, but no brain injury, and was laterdischarged. Rescue workers and journalists arrived at Qaterji shortlyafter the strike and began pulling victims from the rubble. "We were passing them from one balcony to the other," saidphotojournalist Mahmoud Raslan, who took the iconic photo. Hesaid he had passed along three lifeless bodies beforereceiving the wounded boy. A doctor at M10 later reported eight dead, among them fivechildren. The strike occurred during the sunset call to prayer,around 7:20 pm, said Raslan, a correspondent for Al JazeeraMubashir. Omran was rescued along with his three siblings, ages 1,6, and 11, and his mother and father from the rubble of theirpartially destroyed apartment building, according to Raslan. None sustained major injuries, but the building collapsedshortly after the family was rescued. "We sent the younger children immediately to theambulance, but the 11-year-old girl waited for her mother tobe rescued. Her ankle was pinned beneath the rubble," Raslansaid. In the video posted late Wednesday by the Aleppo MediaCenter, a man is seen plucking the boy away from a chaoticnighttime scene and carrying him inside the ambulance, lookingdazed 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 theysay have been systematically targeted by governmentairstrikes. Abu al-Ezz said they do that "because we areafraid security forces will infiltrate their medical networkand target ambulances as they transfer patients from onehospital to another." Activists living in opposition areas rely on informers inthe government-controlled Latakia province to warn residentsof impending airstrikes. (AP)ABH