A report claiming that at least 28 children were killed after a French jet bombed a primary school in the Isis-controlled region of Mosul has been found to be false.
The now debunked report, which was published in the the Arabic-language outlet Al Quds, went viral on Twitter and Facebook, especially among Arab social media users.
It even kicked up a major storm after Egypt's grand mufti, Shawki Allam, released a statement condemning France, the Middle East Eye reported.
Calling it a violation of the Geneva Convention, the Egyptian grand mufti said that the French military operation targeting innocent childen was a shameful act by France.
"It is no less abhorrent than the way terrorist organisations target innocents," he had said.
The Al Quds report cited German Press Agency DPA and said that the school children were killed after French Rafale fighter jets bombed a primary school in east Mosul, 400km north of Baghdad. DPA on Thursday has clarified that it never published the story.
French fighter jets kill 28 children in Mosul primary school this morning. Western news coverage... https://t.co/iNrHwa8Zc2
— George Galloway (@georgegalloway) November 25, 2015
A Saudi news outlet Shafaq News said that the report was "entirely false" as Mosul residents and local journalists have denied that French jets hit Fatima Zahra primary school in Azzuhur on Tuesday.
France strikes Isis targets
On Tuesday night (24 November), Rafale fighter jets took off from the Charles De Gaulle aircraft carrier and bombed an Islamic State Iraq command centre, in what it said was an attack to avenge the Paris massacre.
According to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, at least 33 Isis terrorists were killed and dozens more wounded in the French airstrikes.
