There has been a brutal war in Syria recently and it is difficult to portray the dire situation with merely photographs. That being said, there was a recent photo in circulation of a little boy named Omran from Aleppo. The image of Omran is him wearing a traditional children’s cartoon t-shirt covered with blood and dirt. This photograph is a brutal reminder of how the war in Syria knows no difference between harming the actual enemy and innocent children such as Omran.
While there is little known about Omran, it can be gathered that he is still a toddler because of his chubby legs and arms and how he hugged a man’s leg who removed him from the rubble where he had been previously trapped. Thus far, it has been determined that he lives with his father, mother, sister, and brother in Aleppo. Unfortunately for Omran’s family, their home was destroyed in an airstrike that occurred this prior Wednesday. What is incredible is that his whole family survived the strike.
While Aleppo is not one of the cities that is typically highlighted in the news, it has endured a great deal of struggle during the war in Syria. Aleppo is located in the north part of Syria and the city has suffered a great deal with thousands of deaths during the war.
What makes Omran’s story so compelling is that there is a live video of him being taken from the rubble that he was rescued from by a civil defense worker. In the video, he is being rushed to an ambulance. His face is bloody and there is an eerie silence about him while other men are shouting all around him. He is so innocent, yet he is in severe shock due to the horrific turmoil that he has suffered. What is incredible is that he was not crying during his rescue. Luckily for Omar, he was the first rescued from the rubble where his family was trapped and is out of the hospital.
Unfortunately, the same Wednesday, there was another rebel attack in the al Qaterchi neighborhood in Aleppo that killed three and wounded twelve. It is possible that one of the individuals killed was a relative of Omran.