Twin baby brothers slaughtered 'by Russian bombs' just days before ceasefire in Syria

Lying lifeless on a hospital trolley, these twin baby brothers are apparently the latest, heart-breaking child victims of Syria's merciless civil war.

Just hours before, Omar and Ammar Kandush had been sitting in the home they shared with their mother, father and four older siblings preparing to eat breakfast

But as they lie motionless on the rusted trolley, the twins – reportedly killed in a Russian airstrike last week – are now a truly shocking symbol of 25,000 innocent children who have paid the ultimate price in this brutal conflict. The images were released by activists in Aleppo.

Ammar on the right is still dressed in the soft white socks, nappy, and a stripy baby-grow. An orange baby's dummy lies next him, his downy dark hair sticking up; He could almost be asleep.

Omar, to the left, is wearing lovingly hand-knitted red booties, his nappy covered by navy blue trousers. Like his brother, he has a dummy - this time green - attached to his sweater, the same one he was wearing when his proud parents took a picture of their youngest son not long before.

A bib is also tucked under his chin, a haunting reminder of the breakfast the family was enjoying when the bomb struck.

But a closer look reveals a wound on the back of his forehead and the back of his head, and the blood which had streamed from his nose - just some of the terrible injuries which combined to kill the infant.

It is impossible for western journalists to enter rebel-held territory of the war-torn town but MailOnline contacted the twins' surviving family through activists at the Aleppo media centre.

Syrian photographer Aref Al Aref, who said he took the heart-stopping picture of the dead twins lying side by side on the hospital trolley, said he had tracked down the family from the ruins of their home in Aleppo's Al Sakkor district to the relatives nearby who had given them shelter.

The twins father apparently told him how his family was decimated when a rocket hit the house as they were about to eat breakfast.

He said: 'I was out of the house. When I came back I said "Hi" to the kids and their mother and asked her to prepare the food.

'After about three minutes the house was targeted by an air raid. I didn't exactly know what to do.

'All of them were under the rubble. White helmets [rescuers] were informed about the attacked place, we were evacuated.’

The twin's father, mother and older brothers were found alive but the infants and their six-year-old sister were killed.

'Born at the same time, died at the same time, will enter heaven at the same time,' wrote an activist who posted the first picture of the dead babies on to the internet.

'Martyrs from the Al Sakkor neighbourhood in a Russian raid this afternoon.'

Later photographer Aref told MailOnline of his own anguish when he learned the dead boys whose picture he had taken were twins.

He said: ‘I was shocked when the father of the boys in my photo told me they were twins.’