‘Rescued Syrian boy Omran is one of thousands caught in civil war’

Ali Daqneesh, older brother of Omran Daqneesh, the Syrian boy whose image, dazed and bloodied after an airstrike, shocked people around the world, died in Aleppo from wounds he sustained in the same incident, a war monitor, a local council official and a witness said.

The video and pictures were widely circulated online and in the media, refocusing public opinion on Syria’s five-year-old civil war and the plight of civilians, particularly in Aleppo.

The boys’ mother remains in critical condition.

“I want to send a message to the world that Omran isn’t the first child to be injured because of Russian airstrikes on Aleppo”.

Confirming death of 10-year-old Ali Daqneesh, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, “He succumbed to his injuries”. “Ali is the utter loss of everything”.

Shocking images of the devastation in Omran and Ali’s neighbourhood – in the rebel-held eastern suburbs of Aleppo – after the air strike emerged, paint a terrifying picture of what it would have been like being caught up in the deadly attack.

A man is seen in the video plucking the boy away from a scene of nighttime chaos and carrying him into the ambulance. He wearily touched his wounds and tried to wipe the blood on his hands onto the ambulance seat.

The powerful imagery reverberated across social media, drawing to mind the anguished global response to the photos of Aylan Kurdi, the drowned Syrian boy whose body was found on a Turkish beach and came to represent the horrific toll of Syria’s civil war.

And a nurse, who gave his name as Mudar, added: ‘He’s (Omran) not the only one, there are lots of children who are injured or killed under the bombs and no one is focused on them.

Ali and Omran’s dad recounted the moments after the blast went off to the British newspaper.

“Ali was operated on the day of the strike. he was stable yesterday but today his health deteriorated and we lost him”, said Raslan.