The Guardian

'Damn the whole world': eastern Ghouta's rescuers struggle to cope

As Syrian regime bombs rain down, the White Helmets fear their families will be next
Twenty-seven-year-old member of the White Helmets rescue forces, Saeed al-Masri, holds his three-month-old son Yehya who he rescued after bombardment hit their home the previous week in Saqba in Syria's rebel-held Eastern Ghouta area on February 12, 2018. Rescuer Saeed al-Masri says his toughest mission was when he rescued his three-month-old son Yehya after bombardment hit their home. His wife's shrieking stirred him out of his stupor. He rushed to her, found his bloodied infant and ran him to the hospital. The moment was captured in a photograph of Masri clutching his bleeding son to his chest. / AFP PHOTO / ABDULMONAM EASSA / Getty Images

Saeed al-Masri rushed to the site of the bombing in the town of Saqba, in the rebel-held enclave of eastern Ghouta.When the volunteer rescue worker arrived in the ambulance he realised it was his street that had been bombed. Then he realised it was his home. His three-month-old son, Yehya, was inside along with his wife.

“I cannot describe the scene,” he said in a phone interview with the Guardian about the incident earlier this month. “I have seen many children under the rubble, but I had been waiting for my boy for four

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