The tragedy of Aleppo

What happened

Harrowing pictures of a dazed and bloodcovered Syrian boy rescued from his bombed home in Aleppo last week provoked international outrage. Video footage showed five-year-old Omran Daqneesh in the back of an ambulance just minutes after he had been pulled from the rubble of an apartment building destroyed by an air strike on the rebel-held east of the city. Released by opposition activists, the pictures were immediately shared on social media across the world. Five other members of Omran’s family were pulled out alive, but his ten-yearold brother later died in hospital.

The attack was widely blamed on Russian warplanes supporting the army of President Assad, which is attempting to encircle the city. To deflect international criticism, Moscow agreed to support a 48-hour truce to allow humanitarian relief into the east of the city, which has been entirely cut off from aid since last month.

What the editorials said

Over the last five years “tens of thousands” of civilians have been killed in Syria’s civil war, said The Times. Yet it has taken the picture of one small, traumatised boy to “prick the world’s conscience”. His “shocked face” is a reproach to the West for letting “this madness continue”. But international condemnation has little effect on the Assad regime, said The Guardian. Last summer a similar storm of protest greeted pictures of a three-year-old Syrian boy, found drowned on a Turkish beach after a refugee boat capsized. Yet a year later the combatants were still locked in a war being “fought with callous disregard for humanitarian conventions”.

The conflict is actually intensifying, said The Wall Street Journal. Russian and Syrian aircraft have stepped up their attacks in Aleppo in direct response to recent rebel gains. But even with the Russian air cover, Syria’s “demoralised” army – Assad can now deploy only 20,000 “battle-ready troops” – seems incapable of winning an outright victory in the city. The “bloody stalemate” looks set to continue.