By SHAUNA ANDERSON
He is being hailed as a hero. An eight-year old boy who bravely risks his own life to save that of a young girl.
You can see it for yourself. The dramatic events playing out on social media around the world.
But as the video goes viral its authenticity is being questioned – with many wondering whether it is just a viral hoax.
The amateur video, which was posted on YouTube by the Shaam News Network appears to show a young girl hiding, terrified under a car from sniper fire.
The young boy begins his rescue by braving the bullets himself, running towards the young girl through the dust.
At one stage he pretends to have been hit by one of the bullets – he dramatically falls to the ground in a ruse to deter the gunmen and then gets up again as he continues his way towards the girl.
As the boy gets up a group of men, most probably those who are filming the events from behind a brick wall, can be heard exclaiming “allahu akbar” (God is great).
After he grabs the terrified young girl he holds her hand as he pulls her towards the safety of a nearby building.
You can see the video for yourself here…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgwO6oni-wY
Despite receiving much praise for his heroism, doubts are forming over the video.
The Independent reports that the authenticity of the video has not yet been independently verified and there are questions over its legitimacy.
Since it was posted the video has had over 500,000 views.
One Reddit user claims “There’s just far too many things wrong with this to be a real video. I’m completely confident that this was staged as propaganda to make the shooters look like monsters for shooting at unarmed civilians and children.”
The Times writes that a spokesman for the Aleppo based Islam Army rebel group Abdurrahman Saleh claimed the video was indeed a fake.
“It seems fabricated. There is a panel near the door written on it ‘we are hungry for our freedom’, so the scene is well prepared,” he said, “and the voices of the commentators clearly show they are acting. The tone or tune I do not know the word.”
“Every day there are so many true deeds, thousands of people were killed trying to save others, but the scene here is clearly fake,” he added.
However experts have told The Telegraph that they have no reason to believe the video is a hoax.
As reported by The Telegraph more than 11,000 children have died in Syria since 2011. 389 of them by sniper fire.
We will keep you updated as more information about the video comes to light.
Top Comments
Also, just to let you all know the saying 'Allah hu akbar' can be used as an expression for 'oh my god' which the meaning is intended by the people speaking. It's not just an execution line terrorists use.
I like watching Arabic soapies and I'll tell you this now, the Middle East don't offer good acting training and it's obvious by the tv shows on air. These people are definitely not acting. The terror in Syria is as real as this video.