Beijing / AFP
China’s state broadcaster has questioned the authenticity of the video of Syrian boy Omran which went viral worldwide, alleging it may have been faked as part of a Western “propaganda war”. The video showed the stunned-looking four-year-old covered in blood and dust after an air strike in Aleppo last week, with the US State Department calling the child “the real face” of the Syrian war. Beijing supports the Syrian government led by Bashar Al Assad and is close to Russia, both of which have carried out strikes on rebel-held areas of Aleppo. China’s official broadcaster CCTV questioned the video of Omran in a weekend report, showing the harrowing footage with the subtitle “Video suspected of being fake”.