Pages and accounts on social media circulated a report claiming that three shepherds were killed by security forces, on the pretext that their sheep had entered harvested farmland belonging to the brother of the commander of Division 86, Muhammad al-Jasim, in the southern Aleppo countryside.
The fact-checking team reviewed the official statement issued by the Aleppo justice department about the incident, and found that the crime, which took place in the village of Burj Azzawi, was due to a renewed dispute between two parties over a leased plot of land related to the grazing of sheep, resulting in the deaths of three people, that one of those involved had been detained and the search continued for the rest, while the public prosecution took over the investigation and referred the bodies to forensic medicine, with the public prosecution in the city of al-Safira affirming that investigations would continue against anyone proven to be involved.
Why is this claim misleading?
Distorting the content: The facts of a criminal incident resulting from a dispute between civilians over leased land were distorted, and additional details were fabricated attributing responsibility to security and military bodies, changing the incident's real context and giving it a baseless security dimension.
