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Syria may have been overwhelmed by war for five years now, but you'd never know by checking in with the country's government on Instagram.
A Channel 4 video, titled 'Syrian regime's Instagram fairy tale', shows that often when images of President Bashar al-Assad and the First Lady, Asma, are uploaded to the official Syrian Presidency Instagram account, citizens are being bombed by the regime at the same time.
The video begins:
For five years, we've seen images of death, destruction and despair from Syria.
And for years the Syrian Presidency has been glossing over the horror - on Instagram.
The first cited instance was the barrel bomb assault on Aleppo in 2014
At the same time the following video was uploaded to the official Syrian Presidency account:
The caption reads:
The path ahead may be long, difficult and even arduous, but nothing is impossible when we come together as one. After all, it is only when we sacrifice our individual interests for the greater good that we can ensure our children fulfil their promise.
A recorded 517 civilians were killed in the barrel bomb assault.
The video points out:
Asma greets a child whose father was killed 'in action by terrorists' as an unguided bomb fell on a school in Aleppo, killing 18 people.
Some schools that were bombed were completely destroyed:
On 26 February 2016, regime bombs fell on Daraya, Damascus, and the following day Asma posed for a picture with a little boy
The photo caption? #Martyrs
The video has been viewed over 70,000 and reactions are polarised:
Parvin Jus said: 

>How sad, whilst they’re safe in their palaces their people are being killed and suffering…what kind of evil do you have to be to drop barrel bombs on civilians?
Sheila Berg:
The footage of the bombed schools was heartbreaking…it all was but that just got to me the most. It is sad that they don’t share in the pain of the people and only show their happy lives on media, the people should be more in touch with the suffering of the people.
You can check out the full video, below:
Syrian regime’s Instagram fairy taleThe Syrian regime’s account may well be one of the most fake things anywhere on Instagram.For years it's posted sanitised images of the President and his wife as their forces have visited death and destruction on their own people throughout the country's civil war.
Posted by Channel 4 News on Tuesday, 15 March 2016
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