Photographer testifies: “We passed 3 bodies before we reached the Syrian boy”

The child, identified by reports as 5-year-old Omran Daqneesh, was pulled from what was left of a building hit by an airstrike in Aleppo.

A young Syrian boy sits on an ambulance seat, staring off into the distance in shock and trauma. More than 290,000 people have been killed and more than half the population has been displaced since Syria’s conflict erupted in March 2011 with anti-government protests that escalated into a brutal multi-front war.

Of the eight people killed in the strikes – five were children. One out of three victims have been women and children. Fewer than one out of three hospitals are functioning in the eastern area of the city, which is now held by rebel forces.

“The children of the west are precious for them, and our children not”.

The photo of Alan Kurdi’s body lying on a Turkish beach galvanized the world and became a symbol of the migrant crisis in Europe.

This boy’s story is just one of so many more in Aleppo. Aylan, his brother, and his mother drowned while trying to flee to Turkey almost a year ago. “All they want is for me to be with them in Turkey”.

“Tomorrow is the World Humanitarian Day, and in Syria what we are hearing and seeing is only fighting, offensives, counter-offensives, rockets, barrel bombs, mortars, hellfire cannons, napalm, chlorine, snipers, airstrikes, suicide bombers”, de Mistura said. And why? Because of one thing: fighting. He said the task force is suspended until next week in the hopes of bringing together the United States and Russian Federation.

When they reached the first building, they had to step over three bodies before they could go inside and once there they could not go any further because the staircase had collapsed.

But in a major push earlier in August, a coalition of rebels, Islamists and jihadists fighting against government-led forces cut off the regime’s own main access road on the southern edges of the city, leaving millions of civilians trapped without electricity or water.

Omran was pulled from the remains of a destroyed block of flats along with his parents and three siblings, aged one, six and 11, according to Raslan.

Earlier this week, Moscow claimed that Russian Federation and the USA were close to forming a military alliance to carry out joint operations in Syria, which would focus on the city of Aleppo and “would really allow us to start fighting together to bring peace so that people can return to their homes in this troubled land”. The UN envoy, Staffan de Mistura, said there was “no sense” in holding the meeting in light of the obstacles to delivering aid.

UNICEF, the United Nations children’s agency, estimates 8.4 million children are in need of humanitarian aid in Syria and neighboring countries.