The use of snipers gives the lie to government propaganda. But many, like Hamza, were civilians targeted in the most direct and ruthless way possible: by snipers. At the hospital, which was code-named 'M-1' for security reasons, the vast majority of our patients were local residents injured by shrapnel from barrel bomb attacks or indiscriminate shelling from fights between rebels and regime troops. No amount of disaster management or trauma care training could have possibly prepared me for the brutal reality of the hospital I visited. My aim was to serve the victims of war in that ancient city and world heritage site, now the epicenter of aerial bombing and shelling. My medical mission to Aleppo was organized by the Syrian American Medical Society ( SAMS), a group dedicated to helping the victims of the war. The reality, as I saw it, is far more malicious: The government of President Assad is waging war not only against an armed enemy, but also against its own population. The Western media has fallen into the regimeвЂ™s trap, portraying the conflict as a fight between the government and terrorists - and sometimes implicitly justifying the regimeвЂ™s crimes against its own people. The more recent influx of foreign jihadists into Syria has added some legitimacy to such claims. This has been an effective strategy, playing into the fears of al Qaeda and jihadists that are prevalent in the United States and Europe. Since the start of the first demonstrations in 2011, the Syrian regime has tried to cast the whole opposition as extremists and terrorists. According to the World Health Organization, more than 75 percent of SyriaвЂ™s ambulances have been damaged in the conflict.) Their bodies were rushed to the hospital, along with HamzaвЂ™s, in the back of a car owned by bystanders. HamzaвЂ™s mother and sister were killed instantly. Snipers perched on the roofs of three regime-controlled buildings at the end of the passage have turned the place into a killing ground. That two-block street has now come to be known as 'The Corridor of Death' (' Maabar Almawet' in Arabic). The Western media has fallen into the regime's trap, portraying the conflict as a fight between the government and terrorists - and sometimes implicitly justifying the regime's crimes against its own people. According to the World Health Organization, more than 75 percent of Syria's ambulances have been damaged in the conflict.) Their bodies were rushed to the hospital, along with Hamza's, in the back of a car owned by bystanders. Hamza's mother and sister were killed instantly. I was told that snipers had targeted Hamza, his mother, and his sister as they tried to sprint through the passage separating the opposition-controlled east side of Aleppo to the regime-controlled west. His heart was beating, but he exhibited no other signs of life. His name was Hamza Ramadan, and he was just three years old. In the last day of my medical mission to Aleppo in October 2013, I was asked to examine a toddler who had arrived at our hospital after being shot in the head by a sniper one hour earlier.

1-5 corridor killer victims