US calls dazed boy ‘the real face’ of Syria’s war

TIL Desk/World/Washington-The United States has expressed shock at a photo circulating worldwide on social media that shows a dazed Syrian boy covered in blood and dust, calling him “the real face” of the country’s war.

“That little boy has never had a day in his life where there hasn’t been war, death, destruction, poverty in his own country,” State Department spokesman John Kirby told reporters during his daily press briefing yesterday. Departing from his usual diplomatic talking points, Kirby asked the reporters how many among them had seen photos of the child.

The shocked boy, a four-year-old named Omran, is pictured sitting in an ambulance covered in blood and dust after an air strike Wednesday in the rebel-held district of Qaterji in the southeast of Aleppo, which has been devastated by the five-year war. “You don’t have to be a dad, but I am. You can’t but help look at that and see that that’s the real face of what’s going on in Syria,” Kirby said.