Baladi News – (Abdul Aziz al-Khalifa)
Calling for tolerance and mercy and condemning extremist group, the Saudi Zain telecommunication group launched a promotional footage showing a character of the Syrian child, Omran Daqneesh, who was injured in an airstrike conducted by either Assad’s regime or Russia in August 2016, as a victim of an IS terrorist.
In the ad, a terrorist wearing an explosive belt gets on a bus and meets Omran, which was considered by activists as distorting of facts since Omran was wounded in an airstrike and extricated by the civil defence from under the rubble of his house.
Syrian journalist Qutaiba Yassin said that the ad cannot be considered innocent. Rather, it is part of a drama campaign that started last Ramadan and aims at focusing on ISIS crimes only to mislead public opinion about what is really taking place in Syria.
Syrian Journalist Samer al-Ani, considered the ad as “an insult to the case of Syrian people, a distortion of facts, and an acquittal of Bashar al-Assad of his crimes.”
It is noteworthy that Bashar al-Assad, in an interview with SRF Swiss channel last October, said that the footage of Omran is fake, emphasizing that it was tampered with and promising to send the real footage, bust so far, he has not fulfilled his promise.