Syrian boy saves pet cat amid Aleppo evacuation

Syrian boy saves pet cat amid Aleppo evacuation

Abdillah al-Sayyad brought his cat along with him to save it from the Syrian regime's brutal bombardment, after being evacuated to rebel-held rural Aleppo.
2 min read
22 December, 2016
About 34,000 people have left the one-time opposition stronghold of east Aleppo [Facebook]
Amid the carnage of the Syrian civil war, a heartwarming scene of a young boy who rescued his pet has emerged out of the evacuation of the former rebel stronghold of east Aleppo.

Young Abdillah al-Sayyad told local media on Tuesday that he had brought his cat along with him to save it from the regime's brutal bombardment, after being evacuated to rebel-held rural Aleppo.

"Why have you brought your cat with you from Aleppo?" the reporter from the Syrian Revolution Network asks the young man.

"So that it doesn't die," he responds.

"Why would it die in Aleppo what's going on there?" the reporter then asks.

"[In Aleppo] there's the regime and the siege. There's the regime in the city I don't want them to bomb my cat," Sayyad responds.

About 34,000 people have left the one-time opposition stronghold of east Aleppo since last Thursday, including all of the wounded and sick in critical condition.

Rebel forces, who seized control of east Aleppo in 2012, agreed to withdraw from the bastion after a month-long army offensive that killed hundreds of people and drove them from more than 90 percent of their former territory.

In other positive news, seven-year-old Bana al-Abed, whose Twitter account has given a tragic description of the bombing of Aleppo on Wednesday met Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at his palace in Ankara.

The young Syrian girl was also evacuated in the last days under a deal brokered by Turkey and Russia.

For her 330,000 followers, Bana is a symbol of the tragedy unfolding in Syria, although Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime has slammed her and her mother's nearly daily tweets as propaganda.