Dramatic video out of Syria shows the moment a sobbing child is pulled alive from the rubble following an alleged airstrike.
A video published by the Syrian Civil Defense group, known colloquially as “The White Hats,” shows rescue workers desperately trying to free the crying child from amidst a tangle of smashed concrete and rebar.
After several tense moments, the hysterical child is pulled from the rubble, terrified but alive.
The video was alleged to have been taken in the Eastern Ghouta neighborhood near Damascus, and was uploaded on Jan. 9. This corresponds with reports from the British-based war monitor, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the United Nations, as well as numerous local news reports.
The child’s identity and current condition could not be independently verified.
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Syrian government forces and their allies have killed at least 85 civilians since Dec. 31, in stepped-up attacks against the besieged rebel enclave of Eastern Ghouta, the UN human rights chief said on Wednesday.
Conditions in the enclave, the last major rebel-held zone near Damascus and where at least 390,000 civilians have been besieged for four years, amount to a humanitarian catastrophe, Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein said.
“Residential areas are being hit day and night by strikes from the ground and from the air, forcing civilians to hide in basements,” he said in a statement.
Zeid said warring parties were obliged by law to distinguish between civilians and lawful military targets, and reports from Eastern Ghouta suggested of the attackers were flouting those principles, “raising concerns that war crimes may have been committed.”
Among the dead civilians were 21 women and 30 children, Zeid said.
Backed by Russian strikes, Syrian government forces have escalated military operations against Eastern Ghouta in recent months. Russia rejects accusations that its jets have been targeting civilians.
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Zeid said failure to evacuate urgent medical cases from the enclave was also against international humanitarian law.
Armed opposition groups holed up in Eastern Ghouta had also continued to fire rockets into residential areas of Damascus, which he said caused terror among the population.
A rocket landed near a bakery in Old Damascus on Jan. 4, killing a woman and injuring 13 other civilians, he said.
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— With files from Elton Hobson