Brother of Syrian boy pulled from rubble dies of his injuries

The older brother of the Syrian boy whose image, dazed and bloodied after an airstrike, sent shockwaves across the world, has died in Aleppo from wounds sustained in the same incident, a group monitoring the war said.

Ali Daqneesh, 10, the older brother of five-year-old Omran Daqneesh who was photographed after being pulled from the rubble, was wounded in Wednesday’s air strike according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK – based monitoring group, and a witness who was present at the time of the death along with the boys’ father said.

Ali, 10, was not with his younger brother at home but playing with friends out in the street when the bomb fell. While his family sustained minor injuries when their home collapsed he was more seriously hurt in the blast.

It emerged today that he had died from his injuries in hospital. The boys’ father received mourners at his temporary home after news broke of the death.

His younger brother, five-year-old Omran Daqneesh, was pictured in the back of an ambulance after being pulled from the rubble, with an expression of incomprehension on his dust- and blood-caked face.

The image brought renewed global focus to the suffering of civilians in the eastern part of Syria’s largest city, living under near-siege conditions and a constant bombardment of barrel bombs dropped from government aircraft and more targeted Russian airstrikes.

Russian and Syrian air force planes have a track record of hitting civilian targets, from schools to hospitals and markets, although both governments deny running a campaign of terror. Syrians have long been frustrated that western horror at atrocities by Isis has diverted attention from a far higher, but less publicised, civilian death toll at the hands of government forces and their allies.

Civilian casualties from Russian bombings have overtaken civilian deaths at the hands of Isis for the first time, the activist group, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said last week.