It’s extremely rare for three of the biggest papers in the nation to run the same photograph on their front pages on the same day, but that’s exactly what happened today. The Washington Post, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal all ran Rodrigo Abd’s picture of a young boy mourning the loss of his father — who was killed by a sniper — in Syria.

Merrill D. Oliver, the Times’ Page One Photo Editor for Thursday, said Abd’s photograph was too powerful to pass up. “It’s always horrible when people are grieving a death, but something about a child just raises it to be that much more painful,” Oliver explained. “The emotion in his face just kind of takes you by the throat.”

[Paper pic via Romenesko]