Face of Nation : An image of a father desperately reaching out to his two young daughters trapped in rubble immediately after an airstrike has become a new symbol of the heavy toll of the war in Syria on civilians, including millions of children.
Footage broadcast by pro-opposition news outlet SY-24 showed 5-year-old Riham holding on to her infant sister Tuqa in the rubble of a building immediately after an airstrike in the town of Ariha, in the province of Idlib.
Moments later the building collapsed. Riham is reported to have later died, while 7-month-old Tuqa was receiving intensive care in hospital after sustaining head injuries.
“She has been receiving respiratory support for 24 hours,” a doctor told AFP this week. Their father has been identified as Amjad al-Abdullah. Idlib and surrounding areas in the country’s north-west were included in a “de-escalation” deal last year between Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s main ally Russia and Turkey, which backs some rebel groups, to reduce warfare and bombardment. But the Assad regime and its Russian allies have escalated its airstrikes in the north-west since late April, in a bid to recapture it from rebel and Islamist forces.
“This latest relentless campaign of airstrikes by the Government and its allies has continued to hit medical facilities, schools and other civilian infrastructure such as markets and bakeries,” said Michelle Bachelet, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, on Friday.
