May 31, 2016

Not A Hospital, Not A Russian Strike, Not Civilian - Propaganda Fail In Syria

Below a dissection of another failed propaganda effort in the war of Syria. There are also two news items at the end which may be of interest.

A sometimes reliable account tweeted last night:

M Green ‏@MmaGreen M Green Retweeted الاعلام الحربي Al Nusra (Al Qaeda in Syria) is evacuating all of its HQs in Idlib after the RuAF began a massive wave of airstrikes US gov funded White Helmets at the site of the Russian airstrikes on Al Nusra (Al Qaeda in Syria) positions in Idlib - video Important to note that this video was released by the official Jabhat Al Nusra (Al Qaeda in Syria) propaganda channel in Idlib. 3:47 PM - 30 May 2016

That sounded plausible. The U.S. funded White Helmets are known for their close cooperation with al-Qaeda.

The (British/U.S.?) propaganda account Raqqa Is Being Slaughtered Silently (@raqqa_sl) was awarded the International Press Freedom Award in 2015 from the Committee to Protect Journalists. It had a different version of the air strike.

bigger

A hospital was hit? But why does al-Qaeda evacuate its headquarters? The information in that raqqa_sl account was also "reported" by Reuters.

Several people noted that something else was wrong with that (now deleted) tweet.

Russian Embassy, UK - @RussianEmbassy

Photo purportedly of "Russian airstrike on Idlib" last night was in fact first used by @AlJazeera 6 months ago

bigger 5:11 AM - 31 May 2016

There followed an apology ... and more false information.

الرقة تذبح بصمت @Raqqa_SL 1-we post yesterday a tweet shows photos for Russian Airstrikes photo number 3 is old photo but 1 and 2 is true 2- We apologize for the mistake but this will not change the fact that Russia bomb a Hospital and killed Civilians

5:23 AM - 31 May 2016

"Damn, we got caught. But lets repeat those other assertions."

But those did not fit either. Russia did not bomb in Idleb.

Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation ‪#‎SYRIA‬

Russian Defence Ministry spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov “Russian aviation has performed no combat tasks and certainly no strikes in the ‪#‎Idlib‬ province. “Horror stories” of the “British tandem” presented by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the Reuters news agency are to be treated more carefully. As soon as the Russian Defence Ministry presented objective monitoring data refuting all their fakes, the Observatory and the Reuters took no efforts either to consider the information or to publish the refutations.” Earlier, the Reuters, British news agency, referring to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights had reported on Russian aviation strikes on the Idlib city in Syria

There was also no hospital hit.

Clarissa Ward @clarissaward Learning more from sources on the ground in Idlib. Appears hospital itself was not hit, but just behind it + a public garden

3:43 AM - 31 May 2016

Conflict News - @Conflicts UPDATE: According to @AFP photographer in #Idlib, as well as other sources. National Hospital not directly hit, strike landed behind it.

4:20 AM - 31 May 2016

What was hit in Idleb city last night was an apartment building somewhat near a hospital. It likely included an al-Qaeda headquarter. The precision strike was performed by the Syrian air force.

"Raqqa Is Being Slaughtered Silently" (@raqqa_sl) exposed itself as just another fake news outlet.

Over the last days there is some maneuvering around Syria but no significant event on either side. Two smaller issues are noteworthy though.

Associated Press reports that the current ceasefire in Syria is strengthening al Qaeda. It is remarkable that a U.S. news agency takes note of this. It supports the Russian efforts to get the U.S. engaged against al Qaeda in Syria.

Qatar Airways A-319 airliners with fake registration codes were seen at the airport of Gaziantep in Turkey, near the Syrian border. No public flight plan for the planes could be found. Gaziantep is not a regular stop for any Qatari airplane. It is likely that the planes transported U.S. or Qatari mercenaries who have been trained abroad and are now to be deployed in Syria.

Posted by b on May 31, 2016 at 17:22 UTC | Permalink

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