"Made up" is probably over-reach - and a misinterpretation of the evidence. Babies WERE found dead; some of them blown apart or burned or simply riddled with bullets. If a child is found dismembered, it's not clear whether it was blown apart with a bomb or cut apart with a knife. And some of the reports were mixed - if you find a place filled with dead children and some of them beheaded, it's easy to make the claim that they ALL were.
That's what I have learned from various reports. Nothing clearly points to the 40 story - but numerous verified reports show individuals beheaded, mutilated, burned and worse. Like I said, I was horrified to see a video of a man being hacked with a hoe.
Semantics. So it was 28 instead of 40, or they were blown apart instead of directly beheaded - how does that meaningfully change anything?
"Oh, what a relief! 40 babies weren't beheaded - it was just 32 babies and they were burned to death!"
Really?