Pages and accounts on social media circulated a report stating that the young man Ali Othman al-Sayed, originally from Deir ez-Zor, had been killed by gunfire from a General Security patrol in the city of Al-Bab in the Aleppo countryside.
The fact-checking team carried out field inquiries and contacted a local source from the town of al-Ashara, who said the young man had been wanted by General Security over cases linked to trafficking in narcotics, and that the attempt to arrest him took place in the city of Al-Bab, where a security patrol surrounded him before he detonated a grenade he was carrying. The source added that the young man was wounded in the explosion and taken to a hospital in Aleppo before dying of his injuries, while around four General Security personnel were wounded.
Why is this claim misleading?
Distortion of content: The claim rested on a real death but attributed its cause to gunfire from a General Security patrol, while the available information indicates that the young man was wounded by a grenade he detonated himself during the attempt to arrest him, which changes the substance of the circulating account.
