'I filmed the Syrian boy pulled from the rubble - his wasn't a rare case'

Aleppo-based journalist Mustafa al-Sarout filmed five-year-old Omran Daqneesh after he emerged from the rubble

A local journalist who filmed a heartbreaking video circulating worldwide on social media of a dazed Syrian boy covered in blood and dust after an airstrike hit his home in Aleppo, Syria says it is not a rare occurrence.

“I’ve seen so many children rescued out of the rubble, but this child, with his innocence, he had no clue what was going on,” said Mustafa al-Sarout, an Aleppo-based journalist who filmed the video. “He put his hand on his face and saw blood. He didn’t know even what happened to him. I’ve photographed a lot of airstrikes in Aleppo, but there was so much there in his face, the blood and the dust mixed, at that age," Sarout said.



Mohammad, a surgeon in Aleppo who declined to give his surname, treated the young Omran when he arrived at hospital. He was struck by how stunned the boy was. “He arrived in total shock, total bewilderment at what happened. His body was covered in dust in addition to blood on his face from a wound on his forehead, and the blood mixed with the dust," the surgeon said.

“He was frightened and shocked. He had been sitting safely in his home, perhaps asleep. And the house was brought down on top of him. When we were treating him, he was not screaming or crying, just in shock,” Mohammad said.

Omran was discharged from hospital after a few hours of being rescued. He had suffered a head injury and bruises in the attack but nothing too serious. His older sister and brother had been brought in the ambulance with him, while his father also emerged in the aftermath of the strike, face covered in blood.



Sarout said he was surprised that the video had gone viral as the killing of children had become a common feature of the war in Aleppo and the rest of Syria that those who document its brutality, day in, day out, were no longer surprised by what they see. “These are children bombed every day. It’s not an exceptional case,” he said. “This is a daily fact of Russian and Syrian government airstrikes. They take turns bombing civilians in Aleppo before the whole world. This child is representative of millions of children in Syria and its cities,” Sarout said.

Sarout recalled rushing to the scene when news of airstrikes emerged on Wednesday night.  “There was immense destruction in the neighbourhood,” he said. “There were so many people wounded, maybe 13 or 14 there. There were people who were walking around in the street when the bombing happened and they ran to hide inside the buildings and then got trapped in the rubble when the buildings collapsed,” he said.

For Mohammad, who treated Omran, the devastation of this latest attack is exacerbated by the knowledge that it will not be the last. We have been living the daily reality of children and innocent civilians being killed for five years. The dumb missiles and barrel bombs do not discriminate, he said.



“Stop the killing. It’s not logical that the regime and Russian air forces can keep killing people and innocent civilians and the world stays silent." Syria’s children deserve to live in peace, he added.

The five-year-old had been rescued from the rubble of his home in the rebel-held Aleppo neighbourhood of Qaterji after a government airstrike. As the five-year-old was rescued from the rubble, journalists filmed the scene. The pictures were then broadcast around the world on Thursday, highlighting the sufferings of innocent civilians in war-torn Syria.

This article originally appeared on The Guardian.