Within hours of the reported gas attack on civilians in the Syrian rebel held area of Douma on April 8, claims began circulating on social media that the attack was a “false flag” staged by the rebels, or perhaps the West.

Accusations of such deception regularly follow major incidents. Since they were made well before the evidence could be analyzed, it is not possible to assess their claims directly. What was of interest, in this case, was the way in which the claims were advanced by two main groups — supporters of the Kremlin and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and supporters of the far right on either side of the Atlantic.

Russian and pro-Russian claims

The Russian government itself took the lead in the “false flag” claim, although it did not use that exact term. The Russian Foreign Ministry, in a Russian-language post, called reports of the attack “fabricated” and a “dangerous provocation.” A Facebook post from the Russian Embassy in the United States called the attack “fake news” and “fabricated information.”