In pictures: The children who have defined Syria's eight-year war

Last year was deadliest yet for Syrian children. MEE takes a look at those who have come to shape world's perception of the conflict

 

In February 2011, the message "Your turn doctor" was scrawled on a schoolyard wall, a warning to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Moawiya Sayasina, seen here in 2018 next to the words he wrote seven years earlier, drew the graffiti with three teenage friends across southern Syria's Daraa. What they did and the crackdown that followed sparked a civil war (AFP)

Jenan Ashi-13 March 2019 

May 2011 - Hamza al-Khateeb, pictured here on a protest banner, was arrested during a demonstration in Daraa province's Saida when he was 13. After a month in detention, his mutilated body was returned to his family by Syrian government forces. He had been castrated, burnt and was perforated with bullet holes. The atrocity brought Syrians out onto the streets (AFP)

September 2015 - The body of three-year-old Alan Kurdi was found washed up on the shore in Izmir, Turkey. His family was trying to escape from Syria to Europe. Something about the photo of the boy struck a chord in the West, and a number of European governments softened their stance on asylum. Soon after, Germany would open its doors to Syrians fleeing the war. Seen here is a memorial mural by artists Justus Becker and Oguz Sen in Frankfurt, Germany (AFP)

December 2016 - At the age of seven, Bana Alabed started documenting the siege of Aleppo on Twitter, with the help of her mother. Day by day she would post videos and write updates on the situation for her followers, with those posts growing more ominous. After the fall of rebel-held east Aleppo her family was able to escape to Turkey, where they met with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (right). In 2017 they were granted Turkish citizenship (AFP)

August 2016 - Images of Omran Daqneesh dazed and bloodied in an ambulance in east Aleppo after a Syrian government air strike became an iconic symbol of Syrians' suffering. The next year, after east Aleppo fell, he turned up in Assad-held territory. In an interview with pro-government media, his father claimed Omran had been used and co-opted by the opposition (Screengrab)

June 2018 - Maya Merhi became the face of wounded Syrian children when she was photographed walking through a camp in northern Idlib province with tin cans and plastic tubing made by her father acting as her legs. A doctor in Turkey later gave her prosthetics, free of charge (AFP)

March 2019 - Three-week-old baby Jarah, seen here with his mother Shamima Begum, died at al-Hawl refugee camp in Syria. Begum, who was a girl of 15 when she left the UK to join the Islamic State group (IS), had her British citizenship stripped from her in February after fleeing the assault on IS's last enclave and requesting to return to the UK for the sake of her child. The British government has come under fire for not doing more to get Jarah to safety (Jamie Wiseman/Daily Mail)