Brother of Omran, Syrian boy in haunting picture, dies

Beirut, Aug 21 (AFP) The older brother of the littleSyrian boy, who was pictured sitting in an ambulance dazed andcovered in blood after an air strike, died from woundssustained in the attack on the family’s apartment, amonitoring group has said. "Ali, aged 10, succumbed to his injuries. He was badlywounded in the same bombardment as Omran on August 17 inAleppo," the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights saidyesterday. The haunting images of four-year-old Omran, sitting in anambulance after the attack, his face, arms and legs caked inblood and dust, have reverberated around the world, becoming asymbol for the suffering of children in Syria’s brutalfive-year conflict. In video footage from the incident, Omran is seen quietlystaring into space before raising his arms to touch hisbloodied forehead, then looking at his hand and wiping it onthe orange seat. Omran, his siblings and parents were all plucked from therubble wounded, but alive, following Wednesday’s bombing onthe Qaterji neighbourhood in rebel-held east Aleppo. The Aleppo Media Centre, a network of activists in thedivided northern city, confirmed Ali’s death in a videoyesterday. The images of Omran have sparked a global outcry, muchlike the photo last September of three-year-old Syrian boyAylan Kurdi, whose body washed ashore on a Turkish beach ashis family tried to reach Europe. More than 290,000 people have been killed since Syria’sconflict broke out, including nearly 15,000 children. Omran’s home city Aleppo has been divided by governmentcontrol in the west and opposition fighters in the east since2012. Regime warplanes, backed by Russia’s air force sinceSeptember 2015, bombard the eastern districts while rebelgroups fire rockets into the west. Of the estimated 250,000 people still living in theeastern parts of the city, 100,000 are children, according tothe UN’s children agency UNICEF. (AFP)DBS