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Brother of Omran Daqneesh, Boy Who Became the Symbol of Syria's Suffering, Dies

Ali Daqneesh, older brother to Omran, died Saturday from the injuries he sustained in the airstrike that hit the family's apartment Wednesday.
Image:
Omran DaqneeshAP

A Syrian boy has died from wounds from the airstrike that turned his younger brother, Omran Daqneesh, into an internationally known symbol of the devastation in the war-ravaged city of Aleppo.

Ali Daqneesh died Saturday from the injuries he sustained in the blast that hit the family's apartment in their Qaterji neighborhood Wednesday, the Aleppo Media Center said. He was 10 years old, according to the group.

A nurse, Mohammad al-Shaghel, confirmed to NBC News that Ali died in the hospital's intensive care unit Saturday and said he had suffered serious injuries to the face, abdomen and sides. He had undergone two surgeries, al-Shaghel said.

"Ali's heart stopped and we tried to rescue him. We did CPR for a couple minutes, but unfortunately we didn't succeed," al-Shaghel told NBC News.

The haunting photos of Ali's 5-year-old brother Omran were released by Syrian opposition activists earlier this week. In them, a dust-caked, bloodied Omran sits in an orange chair in an ambulance, his legs too short to reach the floor. Omran appears shell-shocked and weary.

Related: The Boy in the Ambulance: Omran Daqneesh Picture Shows Horror in Aleppo, Syria

A doctor who identified him in the photos said Omran was brought to the hospital with head wounds, but didn't suffer any brain injuries, and was later discharged.

Photojournalist Mahmoud Raslan took the picture and told the Associated Press that rescue personnel and journalists who arrived at the rebel-held district after the strike had pulled three bodies from the debris before they reached Omran.

Omran was plucked from the rubble along with Ali and their two other siblings and mother and father. The heartbreaking images of him triggered memories of another young Syrian boy, Aylan Kurdi, who drowned on a beach in Turkey as his family tried to escape Syria's civil war.

Newspapers and media sites around the world published the picture of Aylan's father carrying his lifeless body along the beach as a symbol of Europe's refugee crisis.