James Earl Jones’ actress wife dies
THE HEARTBREAKING photo of a shocked little boy covered in dust and blood is being called a fake by Syrian President Bashar Assad.
Omran Daqneesh, the 5-year-old boy who survived an air strike in Aleppo on Aug. 17, became the face of the Syrian civil war after a photo (inset) and video of him went viral on social media.
The video captured Omran, who suffered an injury to his head, wiping dust and blood from his face in the back of an ambulance.
About nine-minutes into an interview with Swiss TV SRF 1, Assad was asked to address the photo. “Is there anything you would like to say to Omran and his family?” the reporter asked Assad.
Assad wasn’t fazed and said other photos surfaced on the internet showing Omran and his sister being rescued by paramedics. He claimed paramedics used the photos as a publicity stunt to manipulate the public.
“None of these incidents were true,” Assad said. “We have real pictures of children being harmed, but this one specifically is a forged one.”
Under Assad’s regime, more than 250,000 Syrians have died during the country’s four-year civil war, according to the BBC.
A surgeon who treated Omran told ABC News the boy was dazed and “very lucky.”
Sky News reported Omran’s 10-year-old brother died, and the hospital where he was treated has been demolished by repeated air strikes. IRAQI special forces drove ISIS militants from a key town near Mosul on Thursday, part of a multipronged strategy to reclaim the country’s second-largest city, officials said. The U.S.-trained special forces struck before dawn, using helicopters and dozens of heavily armed black Humvees to push the extremists out. ISIS forces sent nine suicide car and truck bombs against the advancing troops. CECILIA (CeCe) Hart, the longtime wife of actor James Earl Jones, has died.
Hart died Sunday after a year long battle with ovarian cancer, according to Westportnow.com. She was 68.
The actress’ credits included supporting roles on “Three’s Company,” and “Charles in Charge.” She and Jones wed in 1982.