Syrian President Bashar al-Assad claimed in an interview released this week that the viral photograph of a young Syrian boy in Aleppo bleeding and covered in dust is fake, even though medical sources in the city confirmed to ABC News they treated him.
Omran Daqneesh, a five-year-old boy, was filmed being pulled from a building that collapsed from a Syrian or Russian air strike on Aug. 17 in Aleppo's Qaterji neighborhood.
The photograph went viral on social media and has been mentioned twice during the presidential debates. According to ABC News, "Many [social media] users said that they were particularly moved by his photo because he looked dazed and confused and wasn't crying despite the obvious injury to his head."
But Assad has now claimed the photograph is a fake. The Syrian president was interviewed on Swiss TV SRF1 and was asked what he would say to the boy's family.
"We have real pictures of children being harmed, but this one specifically is a forged one," Assad responded.
Medical sources in Aleppo–Syria's largest, rebel-held city currently besieged by Syrian, Russia, and Iranian forces–said they treated the young boy after the Aug. 17 air strike, ABC News reported.
Mohamed Abu Rajab, a radiologist who treated the 5-year-old, told ABC News that "Omran looked very, very shocked and frightened. In the beginning, he didn't speak at all. But after his treatment, he started crying and yelling, 'father, mother.' His parents were very, very affected and scared for their son and crying. But we comforted them and told them that the wound was superficial. But he wasn't speaking so it seemed like his condition was very serious. It seemed like he was unconscious and like the wound had affected his brain. But it turned out that he was fine."
According to activists and doctors in Aleppo, Daqneesh's older brother died from injuries he sustained during the same attack.