BBC Admits 'Syrian' Airstrike in Recent Story on Scarred Boy Turned Out to Be Turkish

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The BBC has corrected its August 19 news story about a Syrian boy who was severely wounded in a 2018 airstrike, which the broadcasting company first said was carried out by Syrian forces but later admitted could be blamed on Turkey.

Some Twitter users posted screenshots showing that the BBC had actually redacted its text several times.

The headline of the short story, featuring a video about the life of a four-year-old Syrian boy whose face was scarred in the airstrike, originally referred to the incident as "a Syrian airstrike." The mention of Syria was then deleted with an indication that it was "not clear who was responsible for the attack." Now the headline refers to it as just "an airstrike," and the article clarifies that "evidence indicates that Turkey carried out the airstrike."

A Syrian man waves to Turkish soldiers securing the streets of the northwestern city of Afrin, Syria, during a Turkish government-organised media tour into northern Syria, Saturday, March 24, 2018

© AP Photo / Lefteris Pitarakis

Last January, Turkish forces launched airstrikes on Kurdish fighters in Afrin, a city located in northern Syria, as part of a military operation dubbed Olive Branch. The boy, named Jouma, and his family were fleeing their home in Syria when an airstrike hit the bus they were on.

Jenan Moussa, a reporter for Arabic Al Aan TV, wrote on Twitter that Tolin Hassan, a close friend of the wounded boy's family, told her Jouma's relatives "mentioned over and over to BBC-journo that the car was hit by a Turkish strike after escaping Afrin."