Images and a short video clip show Omran Daqneesh for the first time since he was wounded in a regime airstrike 
 
 New footage emerges of Syrian boy who gave a face to the suffering in Aleppo 
 
 New footage has emerged of Omran Daqneesh, the boy whose bloodied and dusty image gave a face to the suffering of Aleppo’s civilians in last year’s siege. 
 
 'I filmed the Syrian boy pulled from the rubble - his wasn't a rare case' Read more 
 
 The images were posted on the social media account of a pro-Syrian government television presenter and appeared to show the young boy in good health and living in Aleppo, which is now under the control of forces loyal to Bashar al-Assad. 
 
 
 
 As the rebels retreated from Aleppo, reports had emerged that the Daqneesh family had crossed over into government territory, but they had not been heard from until now. 
 
 
 
 
 
 The images and a short video clip posted by Kinana Alloush – a reporter who once posted a selfie with the corpses of rebel fighters – marked the first time Omran had appeared publicly since he was wounded in a regime airstrike. 
 
 An image of Omran, stunned and sitting alone in the back of an ambulance after a regime airstrike, quickly went viral when it emerged last August and highlighted the suffering of east Aleppo’s besieged civilians. His brother later died of his wounds from the same airstrike. 
 
 In a short interview clip posted by Alloush, Omran’s father tells the TV presenter that he did not hear a plane above his house before the strike and said he rejected offers to leave Syria by parties wishing to damage the reputation of the country’s armed forces. He said that he changed his son’s name and his hairstyle to evade individuals who threatened to kidnap him and accused rebels of intimidating him. 
 
 It was unclear if the family had been coerced into conducting the interview. The Syrian government has carried out similar disinformation efforts in the past, promising benefits to defectors or displaced civilians if they speak out against alleged rebel crimes. ||||| Omran Daqneesh became a symbol of the suffering in Aleppo after a heartbreaking photo showing him sitting in the back of an ambulance — bloodied, dazed, dusty and confused — went viral on social media. 
 
 Doctor in #Aleppo just sent this photo of a dazed child who survived an airstrike pic.twitter.com/IHLDc6KPh8 — Raf Sanchez (@rafsanchez) August 17, 2016 
 
 Now, photos and video of Omran show a young boy in good health and living in Aleppo, which is now under firm control of the Syrian regime. 
 
 A pro-Assad reporter, Kinana Alloush, who once posted a selfie with the dead bodies of rebel fighters, published the first pictures of Omran and his family since they were struck by bombardments conducted by the regime of Bashar al-Assad. 
 
 "The child Omran, those who tried to shed Syrian blood mislead the news that he was hit by the Syrian Arab Army," she wrote. "Here he now lives in the Syrian state with its army, its leader and its people." 
 
 Other pro-regime outlets and the Kremlin-funded video news agency Ruptly also conducted interviews with the boy (Russia is a major ally of the Syrian regime). 
 
 That raises questions over whether the boy is being exploited for a pro-Assad agenda or the family had been forced to conduct the interview. 
 
 Last year, images of Omran being loaded into the emergency vehicle were posted on social media — where it quickly went viral — by rebel groups, including the The Syrian Civil Defense and Aleppo Media Center (AMC). 
 
 It highlighted the suffering of besieged civilians in east Aleppo, drawing the world's attention to the crisis. His brother later died of his wounds. 
 
 But now media loyal to the Assad government appears to be spinning the story for their own agenda. 
 
 In the interview posted by Alloush, Omran's father said he changed his son's name and shaved him to protect him from media attention. "They wanted to trade in his blood and published his photos," he said. 
 
 He added that he refused offers by rebel groups to leave Syria because they want to damage the reputation of the country's army. The family reportedly fled to regime-held west Aleppo as soon as they had a chance. 
 
 It's not the first time that children who went viral on social media during the Syrian civil war are being exploited from one side or another for propaganda purposes. 
 
 Bana Alabed, the 7-year-old girl who tweeted her experience of living in besieged Aleppo, was depicted with Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan after her family was evacuated from the devastated Syrian city and allowed into Turkey, with permission to remain. 
 
 I was pleased to host @AlabedBana and her family at the Presidential Complex today. Turkey will always stand with the people of Syria. pic.twitter.com/VuPtmFl7Lr — Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (@RT_Erdogan) December 21, 2016 
 
 In a video, Bana can be heard telling Erdoğan: “Thank you for supporting the children of Aleppo and help us to get out from war. I love you.” ||||| Image copyright @khalediskef Image caption Journalist Khaled Iskef took a selfie with Omran Daqneesh (2nd left) and his family 
 
 New pictures have emerged of Omran Daqneesh, the young Syrian boy who became a symbol of civilian suffering in the city of Aleppo last year. 
 
 A bloodied Omran was filmed after what activists said was an air strike on a rebel enclave that killed his brother. 
 
 On Sunday, he was photographed at his new home in the city, which is now under full government control. 
 
 In interviews with pro-government journalists, Omran's father complained that he had been used as "propaganda". 
 
 Image copyright AFP Image caption The image of Omran sitting in an ambulance sparked international compassion 
 
 Mohammed Daqneesh told a reporter from Iran's Al-Alam TV that the Syrian opposition and international media had wanted to use Omran to attack President Bashar al-Assad. 
 
 "They wanted to trade in his blood and published his photos," he added. 
 
 Mr Daqneesh said he had been sitting with his then five-year-old son when their home was hit on 17 August and that he had not heard a plane overhead. 
 
 He added that Omran had suffered only minor injuries and that the blood on his son's face had dripped on to him from one of his own wounds. 
 
 Image copyright Reuters Image caption Omran Daqneesh's home was destroyed 
 
 As he searched for his three other children among the rubble, "gunmen" took Omran to an ambulance in the street outside and started filming him, Mr Daqneesh said. They then took him to hospital despite there being no need, he added. 
 
 Video footage of Omran being carried from a damaged building and being placed on a seat in the back of an ambulance by an unarmed man who appeared to be a rescue worker was filmed by the pro-opposition Aleppo Media Centre (AMC), after what it said was a series of overnight Russian air strikes on the Qaterji district. 
 
 A doctor at the hospital where Omran was taken told the BBC at the time that he had a head wound that required stitches and was suffering from shock. 
 
 When troops pushed into eastern Aleppo at the end of last year, Mr Daqneesh and his family reportedly chose to cross into government-controlled territory along with thousands of other civilians, rather than be evacuated to rebel-held Idlib province. ||||| BEIRUT (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - A young Syrian boy, whose stunned image covered in dust and blood became an iconic symbol of suffering in Aleppo, has appeared in new footage posted by a pro-Syrian government television presenter. 
 
 Omran Daqneesh and his father appeared in a video clip, apparently still living in Aleppo telling the reporter, Kinana Allouche, he didn’t want to leave Syria. 
 
 A photograph of the wounded boy, sitting blankly and alone in the back of an ambulance after an airstrike, was circulated worldwide last August, highlighting the suffering of civilians in besieged east Aleppo. His older brother, Ali, died from his wounds after the attack. 
 
 Daqneesh’s father told the reporter his son was in good health in Aleppo - now under the control of President Bashar al-Assad’s forces. He said he had cut his son’s hair and changed his name to protect him from being kidnapped and accused rebels of intimidating the family. 
 
 It was not clear whether the family had been coerced into taking part in the short video posted on Facebook, the first time the boy had been seen publicly since he was wounded. 
 
 However, Valerie Szybala from the Syria Institute, an independent research organisation focused on Syria, said the family was unlikely to have been speaking freely. 
 
 “They are under government control now and this is a government that we know arrests and tortures anyone that speaks out against it ... to me the situation seems to suggest this is probably coerced,” Szybala told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. 
 
 Rebel resistance in Aleppo ended last December after years of fighting and months of bitter siege and bombardment that culminated in a bloody retreat, as insurgents agreed to withdraw in a ceasefire. 
 
 Syria’s civil war, which erupted in 2011 has killed an estimated 465,000 people. ||||| A photo of a young Syrian boy covered in dust and blood in an ambulance that was viewed by millions and became the face of Aleppo's suffering is being called fake by Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad, a claim that contradicts numerous witness accounts on the ground in Syria. 
 
 The boy, five-year-old Omran Daqneesh, was pulled from a destroyed building in the besieged part of Aleppo's Qaterji neighborhood after a Syrian or Russian airstrike on Aug. 17, according to locals, including medical sources and the White Helmets, a volunteer civil defense group that rescued the boy. On social media, many users said that they were particularly moved by his photo because he looked dazed and confused and wasn't crying despite the obvious injury to his head. 
 
 A video showing Omran touching his wounded head and wiping away the blood without shedding a tear went viral and has come to symbolize the humanitarian suffering in Aleppo. Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton mentioned the boy's story in two of the presidential debates, including last night's. 
 
 Now, the Syrian president has said that the photo of Omran is fake. When confronted with the photo in an interview with Swiss TV SRF1 and asked what he would say to Omran and his family, Assad responded: "We have real pictures of children being harmed, but this one specifically is a forged one.” 
 
 Assad makes the claim about nine minutes into the televised interview. 
 
 Medical sources in Aleppo confirmed to ABC News in August that they treated Omran following the airstrike. 
 
 “Omran was scared and dazed at the same time. He wasn’t crying at all. It seemed like he had been asleep when it happened,” Mohammad, a surgeon in Aleppo who treated him, told ABC News at the time. “He was very lucky. He only had a simple wound in the scalp. We cleaned and stitched the wound and cleaned his face and clothes. There was no brain damage, and he was discharged after two hours,” Mohammad said. 
 
 Mohamed Abu Rajab, a radiologist who treated the 5-year-old, told ABC News that “Omran looked very, very shocked and frightened. In the beginning, he didn’t speak at all. But after his treatment, he started crying and yelling, “father, mother.' His parents were very, very affected and scared for their son and crying. But we comforted them and told them that the wound was superficial. But he wasn’t speaking so it seemed like his condition was very serious. It seemed like he was unconscious and like the wound had affected his brain. But it turned out that he was fine." 
 
 Omran's older brother later died from his injuries from the same attack, according to monitoring groups, activists and doctors in Aleppo. 
 
 The hospital where he was treated has since been completely destroyed by repeated airstrikes and is now out of service, according to medical staff who worked there and the Syrian American Medical Foundation, which supported the hospital. ||||| BEIRUT (Reuters) - The older brother of a Syrian boy whose image, dazed and bloodied after an air strike, shocked people around the world, has died in Aleppo from wounds sustained in the same incident, a war monitor, a local council official and a witness said. 
 
 Ali Daqneesh, 10, was wounded in Wednesday’s air strike, according to U.K.-based monitoring group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, and a witness who was present at the time of the death along with the boys’ father. 
 
 “He was martyred while in hospital as a result of the same bombardment that their house was subjected to,” said Besher Hawi, the spokesman for the local council of Aleppo. 
 
 He had internal bleeding and organ damage, doctors told the witness. 
 
 His younger brother, five-year-old Omran Daqneesh, was pictured in the back of an ambulance after being pulled from the rubble, with an expression of incomprehension on his dust- and blood-caked face. 
 
 The video and pictures were widely circulated online and in the media, refocusing public opinion on Syria’s five-year-old civil war and the plight of civilians, particularly in Aleppo. 
 
 Russian and Syrian warplanes have intensified their air strikes on the rebel-held east of the city since insurgents made an advance last month, breaking an effective siege. 
 
 Fighting and air strikes in and around Aleppo have killed 448 civilians so far this month, the Observatory said. 
 
 Five-year-old Omran Daqneesh, with bloodied face, sits inside an ambulance after he was rescued following an airstrike in the rebel-held al-Qaterji neighbourhood of Aleppo, Syria August 17, 2016. REUTERS/Mahmoud Rslan 
 
 Rebels, supported by the United States, Turkey and Gulf Arab nations, have been fighting since 2011 to oust President Bashar al-Assad, who is supported by Russia and Iran. Russia began air strikes last September. 
 
 On Friday, the World Food Programme described the situation in besieged areas as “nightmarish” amid growing international concern over the humanitarian cost of the war in Syria. 
 
 Russia on Thursday said it supported the idea of weekly 48-hour ceasefires to allow humanitarian aid to enter besieged parts of Aleppo, a plan the rebels also cautiously welcomed.
– The Syrian boy who drew worldwide attention last August after he was bloodied by an airstrike in Aleppo has resurfaced looking like any other healthy 5-year-old. But some are cautioning that looks can be deceiving. In interviews with pro-government outlets—including reporter Kinana Allouche, who once shared a selfie with the bodies of rebel fighters—Omran Daqneesh is seen next to his father as the older man accuses rebels of using Omran as a propaganda tool. "They wanted to trade in his blood and published his photos," he says, per the BBC. Mohamad Daqneesh, who lost an older son in the airstrike, adds he refused rebel offers to leave Aleppo because the rebels only seek to hurt the reputation of the Syrian Army, per Mashable. Allouche notes "those who tried to shed Syrian blood mislead the news that he was hit by the Syrian Arab Army. Here he now lives in the Syrian state with its army, its leader and its people." The interview marks a decided turn for the regime of Bashar al-Assad, who last year said the photo of Omran in an ambulance was "forged." But a rep for the Syria Institute suspects a propaganda campaign has only just begun and says the family was "probably" coerced. Since rebels withdrew from Aleppo in December, "they are under government control now and this is a government that we know arrests and tortures anyone that speaks out against it," the rep tells Reuters. The Assad regime is known to offer incentives to those who speak out against rebels, reports the Guardian.