New pictures of Omran Daqneesh have emerged nearly 10 months after the iconic picture of him looking bloodied and stunned after an airstrike in Syria went viral.
The picture of the five-year-old boy sitting in an ambulance in rebel-held neighbourhood brought world-wide attention to the conflict in Syria in August, 2016.
Daqneesh’s father is disputing the fact that his son was injured in an airstrike. His father, who is unnamed in the Facebook post by pro-Syrian government reporter Kinana Alloush, said he didn’t hear a plane above his house during the airstrike.
The pictures posted are the first time the Daqneesh family has been heard from since the picture was taken. He appears to be in good health.
The father also said he supported Syrian President Bashar Assad, saying he rejected offers to leave Syria because it would be damaging to the reputation of the country’s armed forces, according to the Guardian.
Daqneesh, suffered wounds during the airstrike in August, 2016. His 10-year-old brother Ali died in the same strike.
A doctor in Aleppo identified Daqneesh along with the photojournalist who took the pictures.
But Assad has repeatedly called the picture a fake.
“There’s something I would like to say to you first of all,” Assad told journalist Sandro Brotz. “I want you to go back after my interview and go to the Internet to see the same picture of the same child with his sister, both were rescued by what they call them in the West, White Helmets.
“They were rescued twice, each one in different incidents and just as part of the publicity of those White Helmets. None of these incidents were true,” the president said.
*Global News’ Adam Frisk contributed to this report.
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