Syrian toddler thought dead reunited with parents

NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) - A two-year-old Syrian boy who was believed dead after his family inadvertently left him behind as they fled shelling in Damascus last summer has been reunited with his parents in Cyprus, a lawyer said today.

No one knows exactly how long little Bushr Al Tawashi wandered on his own in the rubble of his family home in the Al Kaboun suburb before another fleeing family found him and handed him over to rebel fighters, lawyer Stella Constantinou told The Associated Press.

Ms Constantinou said in their haste to escape the fighting, Bushr's father Machhour Al Tawashi and his mother Arin Al Dakkar assumed that the boy was picked up by other members of their extended family who had been staying with them.

But heavy fighting prevented them from going back to search for Bushr once they realized he was missing, Ms Constantinou said.