Haunting image of Syrian boy rescued from rubble sums up Aleppo horror

Heartbreaking footage has emerged showing the moment a child was pulled alive from a building in the Syrian city of Aleppo.

Covered in a thick layer of dust with blood running down the side of his face, a 5-year-old Syrian boy sat on a bright orange chair inside an ambulance with his tiny feet dangling near the edge of his seat.

In the video posted late on Wednesday by the Aleppo Media Center, a man carries the boy away from the rubble following an airstrike on the rebel-held district Qaterji.

The image offers just a glimpse into the horrors plaguing Aleppo as it continues to suffer from airstrike after airstrike during the country’s gruesome civil war.

“I chose to use my privilege as chair to declare that there was no sense to have a humanitarian meeting today unless we got some action on the humanitarian side in Syria”, De Mistura said. “We are afraid security forces will infiltrate our medical network and target ambulances as they transfer patients from one hospital to another”, Abu al-Ezz said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a United Kingdom -based war monitor, said heavy air strikes on Tuesday had hit many targets in and around Aleppo and elsewhere in Syria, killing dozens.

Activists living in opposition areas rely on informers in the government-controlled Latakia province to warn residents of impending airstrikes. On Wednesday evening, an informant relayed word of a warplane taking off from the Russian air base at Hmeimim. “Her ankle was pinned beneath the rubble”, he said.

No one was injured in the first strike, said Raslan.

Omran and his family were plucked out of the building one by one, brought down through balconies. The U.N.is hoping to secure a 48-hour pause in the fighting in Aleppo.

Photos of an injured Syrian boy covered in soot and blood have sparked outrage online over the humanitarian disaster taking place in Aleppo, several weeks into a major Syrian government offensive on a rebel stronghold in the city of two million people.

The rebel-held city has been contested since 2012.

De Mistura welcomed Russia’s support for a pause in fighting and said the United Nations was counting on Moscow’s help to ensure “the adherence of the Syrian armed forces to the pause, once it comes into effect”.

Since then, the frequency and intensity of airstrikes has reportedly increased, despite an announcement from Russian Federation that action over Aleppo would be suspended for three hours a day.