Four months ago, the Aleppo Media Center posted a video of young boy called Omran with his bloody face in the back of an ambulance on YouTube. Now, the original video has more the 4 million views, and it has been reproduced by several other news agencies and reaching a broader audience. Omran and his family initially survived a barrel bomb attack on their building on August 17, 2016, allegedly launched by Russian Air forces. The building collapsed killing 8 people, including five children. Omran's older broth Ali did not survive for long, and died shortly after he was transported to the hospital. To many, Omran's photo has become a symbol of the suffering of Syrian children; it is often compared to the photo of Alan Kurdi, the young boy who died on the shores of the Agean Sea as his family fled to Europe.
The photograph has caused some controversy online amongst the Syrian government and its supporters. Some claimed that the photograph was an outright fabrication. Others criticized the photographer for rushing to capture images of the child and failing to directly respond to his medical needs. Still others have suggested that Mustafa al-Sarout is part of a militant organization that had been involved in executing a 9-year old child only a week earlier. These allegations are ofcourse unconfirmed. From the photographer's side, Mustafa al-Sarout was interviewed by the Guardian as he declared that he was shocked that his footage was so widely circulated. He emphasized that there are thousands of Omran's who face similar situations every day in Eastern Aleppo.
