Amidst the rising tension in Idlib that has displaced millions of Syrian, a video of a father teaching his three-year-old daughter to laugh as she hears Russian fighter jets bombing neighborhood has gone viral.
The Syrian father, identified as Abdullah al-Mohammad posted a video of a game, he had devised to distract his daughter - Salwa from the constant bombing that is taking place in Idlib.
In the video, which he posted on Twitter, the father and daughter can be seen sitting while the father asks her to anticipate the sound of the bombing. The next instant the innocent child can be heard laughing out loud as a bomb goes off in the background.
When a Russian fighter jet approaches the area a rumbling sound can be heard getting louder as al-Mohamed asks Salwa: "Is that a plane? Or is it a shell?"
"A shell!" Salwa replies and at this the father is heard saying: "It'll fall now, and we can laugh."
The impact of the blast sounds first startles Salwa, soon she recovers and starts laughing loudly as her more subdued father encourages her, laughing along and saying: "That's funny, right? A shell?" His smile falters at the end of the video when Salwa looks away.
The family of three - Salwa, her father, and mother - were forced to flee their home in Saraqeb, a strategic town in Idlib province after Syria intensified the bombing in the region. The family currently lives in a relative's house along the Syrian border in Idlib.
Even as the weather condition continues to deteriorate with the temperature reaching sub-zero, thousands of Syrians have fled to the Turkish border after Syrian troops intensified its offensive in Idlib province, which is the last stronghold of rebels opposed to President Bashar Al-Assad.
As per the UN figures, the incessant bombings in the region has displaced 700,000 people and killed thousands. The lack of adequate shelter to house the displaced has resulted in 82,000 people living in the freezing open air battling sub-zero temperature, settling under trees or in snowy fields, the UN said. Women and children are the worst suffers are being forced to burn plastic or whatever scrap they can find to keep themselves warm.
