In this frame grab taken from video provided by the Syrian anti-government activist group Aleppo Media Center (AMC), a child sits in an ambulance after being pulled out of a building hit by an airstrike in Aleppo, Syria on Aug 17. (AP)

BEIRUT, Aug 18, (Agencies): Syrian opposition activists have released haunting footage showing a young boy rescued from a partially destroyed building in the aftermath of a devastating airstrike in Aleppo.

The image of the stunned and weary- looking boy, sitting in an orange chair inside an ambulance, covered in dust and with blood on his face, encapsulates the horrors inflicted on the war-ravaged northern city. Photographs of the boy were widely shared on social media. An hour after his rescue, the building the boy was in completely collapsed.

The fighting has frustrated the UN’s efforts to fulfill its humanitarian mandate, and the world body’s special envoy to Syria on Thursday cut short a meeting of the ad hoc committee — chaired by Russia and the United States — tasked with de-escalating the violence so that relief can reach beleaguered civilians. The UN envoy, Staffan de Mistura, said there was “no sense” in holding the meeting in light of the obstacles to delivering aid. The UN is hoping to secure a 48-hour pause in the fighting in Aleppo. A doctor in Aleppo on Thursday identified the boy as 5-year-old Omran Daqneesh.

Osama Abu al-Ezz confirmed the boy was brought to the hospital known as “M10” on Wednesday night, following an airstrike on the rebel-held neighborhood of Qaterji with head wounds, but no brain injury, and was later discharged. Rescue workers and journalists arrived at Qaterji shortly after the strike and began pulling victims from the rubble. “We were passing them from one balcony to the other,” said photojournalist Mahmoud Raslan, who took the memorable photo. He said he had passed along three lifeless bodies before someone handed him the wounded boy.

Raslan rushed him to the ambulance, he said. A doctor at M10 later reported eight dead, among them five children. The strike occurred during the sunset call to prayer on Wednesday evening, said Raslan, a correspondent for Al Jazeera Mubashir. Omran was rescued along with his three siblings, ages 1, 6, and 11, and his mother and father from the rubble of their partially destroyed apartment building, according to Raslan. None sustained major injuries, but the building collapsed one hour after the family was rescued. A second building, next to theirs, was also heavily damaged. Rescue workers worked until 5 am to retrieve a final victim from the rubble.

The victim, who was not identified, survived. “We sent the younger children immediately to the ambulance, but the 11-yearold girl waited for her mother to be rescued. Her ankle was pinned beneath the rubble,” Raslan said. In the video posted late Wednesday by the Aleppo Media Center, a man is seen plucking the boy away from a chaotic nighttime scene and carrying him inside the ambulance, looking dazed and flateyed. The boy then runs his hand over his blood-covered face, looks at his hands and wipes them on the ambulance chair.

Syrian and Russian aircraft have launched intense air strikes on opposition strongholds in northern Syria to prevent rebels sending reinforcements to a crucial battle in Aleppo, a monitor said Thursday. Air strikes on Idlib city, 60 kms (35 miles) southwest of Aleppo, killed 25 people including 15 civilians on Wednesday, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Regime aircraft continued to pound rebel positions across Idlib province on Thursday as well as parts of Aleppo province, it said. “Regime and Russian aircraft are carrying out dozens of raids every day on Idlib province and the west of Aleppo province to prevent reinforcements reaching rebel positions,” said Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman. Idlib is dominated by the same alliance of rebels and jihadists that is fighting in Aleppo, including the former Al-Nusra Front, which has renamed itself Fateh al- Sham Front after renouncing its status as al-Qaeda’s Syrian affiliate.

Russia said on Thursday it was ready to halt fire for 48-hour periods in Aleppo from next week, following UN calls to extend humanitarian pauses to deliver aid. “Russia’s defence ministry is ready to support the proposal by UN envoy to Syria Staffan de Mistura regarding the introduction of weekly 48-hour ‘humanitarian pauses’ (in Aleppo),” defence ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said in a statement. “We are ready to implement the first 48-hour ‘humanitarian pause’ to deliver humanitarian aid to Aleppo residents as a ‘pilot project’ already next week in order to ensure safe cargo deliveries to the city’s civilians.”

Frustrated and unhappy, the UN envoy for Syria abruptly cut short a Thursday meeting of its humanitarian task force because aid convoys to besieged cities and towns have been impeded this month amid a surge in fighting in the country’s 5-1/2-year civil war. Staffan de Mistura hoped to ratchet up pressure on world powers — notably the United States and Russia — to help produce a long-sought 48-hour pause in fighting in the northern city of Aleppo, in the face of a recent government offensive. He said he suspended the weekly meeting of the task force after only eight minutes because dozens of UN priority areas for aid shipments haven’t received any for weeks.