Brother of Syrian boy pictured in Aleppo dies of his wounds

Ali Daqneesh, 10, died from wounds sustained in the attack on the family’s apartment, after suffering from internal bleeding and organ damage

Five-year-old Omran Daqneesh, with his face bloodied, sits with his sister inside an ambulance after they were rescued following an air strike in the rebel-held Al Qaterji neighbourhood of Aleppo, SyrShow more

BEIRUT // The older brother of the Syrian boy who was pictured sitting in an ambulance dazed and covered in blood after an air strike has died in Aleppo, a monitoring group said.

Ali Daqneesh, 10, died on Saturday from wounds suffered in the attack on the family’s flat, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based monitoring group.

He had internal bleeding and organ damage, doctors told a witness who was present with the father of the boys at the time of Ali’s death.

“Ali, aged 10, succumbed to his injuries. He was badly wounded in the same bombardment as Omran on August 17 in Aleppo,” the observatory said.

The images of his younger brother, four-year-old Omran, sitting in an ambulance after the attack – his face, arms and legs caked in blood and dust – have reverberated around the world, becoming a symbol for the suffering of children in Syria’s brutal five-year conflict.

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

Russian and Syrian warplanes have intensified their air strikes on the rebel-held east of the city since insurgents made an advance last month, breaking an effective siege.

Fighting and air strikes in and around Aleppo has killed 448 civilians so far this month, the observatory said.

Rebels, supported by the United States, Turkey and Gulf Arab nations, have been fighting since 2011 to oust president Bashar Al Assad, who is supported by Russia and Iran. The Aleppo Media Centre, a network of activists in the divided northern city, confirmed Ali’s death in a video on Saturday.

The images of Omran sparked a global outcry, much like the photo last September of three-year-old Syrian boy Aylan Kurdi, whose body washed ashore on a Turkish beach as his family tried to reach Europe.

Omran, his siblings and parents were all plucked from the rubble wounded, but alive, following Wednesday’s bombing on the Qaterji neighbourhood in rebel-held east Aleppo.

Omran’s home city Aleppo has been divided by government control in the west and opposition fighters in the east since 2012.

Government warplanes, backed by Russia’s air force since September 2015, bombard the eastern districts while rebel groups fire rockets into the west.

Of the estimated 250,000 people still living in the eastern parts of the city, 100,000 are children, according to the UN’s children agency Unicef.

More than 290,000 people have been killed since Syria’s conflict broke out, including nearly 15,000 children.

On Friday, the World Food Programme described the situation in besieged areas as “nightmarish” amid growing international concern over the humanitarian cost of the war in Syria.

Russia on Thursday said it supported the idea of weekly 48-hour ceasefires to allow humanitarian aid to enter besieged parts of Aleppo, a plan the rebels also cautiously welcomed.

* Reuters and Agence France-Presse