His tiny legs dangling from the seat of an ambulance, staring numbly and coated in dirt and blood, five-year-old Omran Daqneesh for a brief moment on August 17, 2016 reminded the world of its numbness to the tragedy ripping apart Syria’s ancient city of Aleppo — and a war that has shaken the Middle East and sent its shockwaves across the world.

With the help of Russian warplanes, Bashar al-Assad’s forces have battered a rebel-held eastern bastion in Aleppo day and night, and are now close to recapturing it. In one of those strikes, Omran was pulled out of the rubble alive. Eight others died, activists say, including his 10-year-old brother Ali.

To President Assad’s supporters, this is typical propaganda from an opposition losing the five-year war. Perhaps even staged, they say. But the human toll of Aleppo is hard to deny. Hundreds were added to a death toll now likely higher than 300,000 across Syria.