'Daddy pick me up', screams 9-year-old as his legs are blown off in Syria attack

Idlib: In the aftermath of a barrel bomb attack in Syria’s Idlib, nine-year-old Abdel Basset Al-Satuf tries to sit up, his legs blown off, and screams “Daddy, pick me up!”

Abdel Basset was caught in a barrel bomb attack by regime forces on Thursday in the town of Al-Hbeit, in northwest Idlib province.

The harrowing footage of the young boy screaming for his father as he struggles to sit up, his legs turned to bloody stumps, quickly spread on social media.

The child was taken to a hospital in the provincial capital Idlib city for preliminary treatment, but on Friday he and his father were transferred to Turkey for specialised care.

In an ambulance about to head to the border, Abdel Basset recounted the incident as his father Taan tried to keep his composure.

“We were sitting having lunch when the barrel bombs started to fall on the town and my father told us to get in the house,” he said. “But as we arrived at the door of the house a barrel fell on it and when it exploded fire blasted towards me and amputated my legs.”

“My father immediately picked me up and moved me and put me down on the ground (away from the house) and then an ambulance came and they treated me,” he added.

In the video, Abdel Basset can be seen sitting stunned as desperate voices scream for an ambulance and paramedics.

His father had run back to the house to search for the rest of the family, three of whom were killed in the attack.

In Al-Hbeit, the family’s landlord described the incident as “a massacre”.

“The family was having lunch and I was walking with his father, and at first we didn’t notice anything until the aircraft arrived,” he said. “Then a barrel bomb came down and there was a big explosion,” Walid Abu Ras said.

Taan ran back towards his house, trying to warn his family to take cover when their home was hit.

“Abdel Basset’s legs were blown off and one of his sisters was killed, and another one was wounded. His mother was killed and he doesn’t know yet,” Abu Ras added.

The attack also killed the husband of one of Abdel Basset’s sisters.

Abu Ras said the family had arrived in Idlib less than two years ago from Latamneh in neighbouring Hama, displaced by war like more than half of Syria’s population.

The video of Abdel Basset is just the latest footage to refocus attention on the plight of Syria’s civilians, particularly children.

In August 2016, haunting images of a four-year-old called Omran, shell-shocked and covered in dust after an air strike, reverberated around the world.

Syria’s government and rebel forces are technically observing a ceasefire brokered by Turkey and Russia that began on December 30.