- The face of a protest: The above is a childhood picture of Hamza al-Khatib, a slain Syrian boy whose image has become a rallying symbol for the opposition to the rule of Bashar al-Assad. Activists have claimed Syrian security forces al-Khatib tortured and killed by. Be warned, there are extremely grisly images and video floating around the internet of the boy’s corpse that are about as hard to look at as anything, so please be careful. The Syrian protest movement has now galvanized around this boy’s memory, and protesters have plastered this specific image across signs and banners — a chilling reminder of the routine brutalities the Syrian people, even their children, have suffered under Bashar al-Assad’s reign. source