Nine years ago, a shocking photograph appeared from Syria, showing a child sitting inside an ambulance, covered in dust, with blood running down his face, staring in shock into the camera minutes after being rescued from under the rubble of his home, which had been targeted by an Assad regime airstrike on opposition-held east Aleppo.
The child, Omran Daqneesh, was only four years old at the time. His image went viral around the world.
On Monday, Omran reappeared during celebrations of the first anniversary of the liberation of Syria from the Assad regime at the Conference Palace in Damascus. The event was attended by current Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa and other key officials.
In a brief comment, he said: "They say I lived through the bombing… but I don’t remember anything."
On August 17 2016, the Assad regime and Russian warplanes launched airstrikes on rebel-held areas in Aleppo, destroying Omran’s family home and causing it to collapse on top of everyone inside.
The Aleppo Media Centre news network broadcast a video documenting the moment of Omran’s rescue by paramedic Ammar Hammami, who placed him in an ambulance.
The four-year-old boy sat silently on the seat, without crying or screaming, his body covered in dust, his face stained with blood. He wiped the blood from his forehead with his hand, looked at it quietly, then wiped it on the seat, showing no reaction despite the horror of the moment.
Later, other children arrived in the ambulance, including his sister. All were in similar condition.
But Omran was the first to be rescued from under the rubble, which made him the focus of attention of millions of people around the world.
On social media during the celebrations, users revisited the details of what happened on that day.
Some reshared a video of a CNN anchor crying while presenting a report about Omran’s photo. Many drew parallels between his image and that of another Syrian child, Aylan Kurdi, who was found drowned on a beach in Turkey after the sinking of a boat carrying his family.
One person said that the sight of Omran wiping the blood from his forehead, and Aylan lying motionless on the sand, were two scenes impossible to forget, etched into memory and tied to the name of the Syrian revolution.