Syrian children's terrifying account of air strike on their family home that left them orphaned
Two young children have told ITV News of the moment an air strike destroyed their home and killed their family, leaving them orphaned.
Tasneem, 10, and Islam, eight, were pulled from the rubble after an assault launched by President Assad's regime.
Both their parents and their brother, four-year-old Rayan, were among six people killed in their housing block in the rebel-held Douma, a suburb in the capital Damascus.
But Tasneem has been left so badly injured from the attack that Islam has not told her of their deaths - because he says she "needs to get better first".
ITV News' Diplomatic Correspondent John Ray reports:
Tasneem had been baking with her mother after school when sirens alerted them to a potential incoming strike on Tuesday afternoon.
She said the family took shelter in their middle living room in the three-storey property but had become so used to the threat that they soon returned to preparing the evening meal.
"For so long now the planes would come hit something and go," she said, speaking barely 48 hours after the attack while recovering at her uncle's house.
"We didn't know it was going to hit us."
A nearby blast brought them back into the middle room again, while her mother demanded their father not risk his life by investigating it.
It was then the direct hit happened, Tasneem said:
While Islam escaped with minor injuries, the attack knocked Tasneem unconscious and left her with a broken arm and leg and further wounds to her head, neck and eye.
"My leg is burning me like crazy," she said. "All night I couldn't sleep...I feel like my face is burnt and my face has become scarred."
Islam had seen Tanseem's hand in the rubble and helped to move rocks to free her.
He also found his brother, but could do nothing.
"I thought Rayan was fine then I found him dead," he said.
ITV News joined Islam and his adult carers as they returned to his wrecked home.
With his boots fetched and carried up through the destruction, he retrieved toys and games from his bedroom, then went searching for a bag. He said:
While dealing with her physical injuries, Tasneem is still to learn of her family's fate.
"Tasneem doesn't know yet," Islam explained when away from his sister. "She needs to get better first then we will tell her."
Islam said he has already planned how to break the news to her:
Tasneem said she had been told her family were in "critical condition" and was praying "nothing happens to them".
She said: "We have no one but them in this world, me and my brother."
Their tale of survival is strikingly contrasted with images of Assad's British-born wife meeting schoolchildren in the same capital city just two days after the fatal air strike.