Yesterday (15/2/16) activists in Northern Syria accused Russia of bombing hospitals in Maaret al-Numan - which sits between Hama City and Idlib City - and Azaz - the Al Qaeda occupied town just north of Aleppo City.
What made this claim so outrageous and so shocking is that it actually happened.
The particular group making this claim is the White Helmets (@SyriaCivilDef) whose work is often clearly branded with the logo of a white helmet inside a blue outline map of Syria on a yellow background. Funded by the United Arab Emirates (UAE), operating from Turkey and headed by a British mercenary the White Helmets are not a humanitarian organisation.
Instead they are a purely military organisation dedicated to psychological warfare. They were formed with the sole purpose of illegally overthrowing the Syrian government. Their main weapon is what is termed "Atrocity Propaganda." That is the deliberate fabrication or exaggeration of atrocities such as war crimes that are blamed on the enemy.
The White Helmets' particular predilection for using children in their propaganda videos itself constitutes a war crime contrary to Article 27 of the Fourth Geneva Convention.
Although it is hard to pick just one perhaps the most outrageous claim made by the White Helmets was that on October 20th 2015 (20/10/15) Russian air-strikes had destroyed the Syrian-American Medical Centre (SAMC) in the town of Sarmin which sits around 5km (3 miles) east of Idlib City.
Having not conducted any air-strikes in the area on the day in question Russia immediately tasked observation satellites and reconnaissance aircraft to inspect the damage to the building. They found absolutely none whatsoever and later released footage of the undamaged building which were confirmed by the US.
There was of course no need for Russia to go to these lengths because part of the video released by the White Helmets was filmed inside the very clearly un-destroyed hospital which they were claiming had been destroyed. Going for a sort of war crime trifecta another section of the same video showed two boys who could be no more then 10 photogenically posed on top of a pile of rubble tearfully telling the world how their parents had been killed in the air-strike that never happened.
Despite the White Helmets own video quite clearly demonstrating that they were lying this story of Russia bombing a hospital was widely reported as fact across much of the World. The source of the video - the White Helmets - was never acknowledged and their credibility as a source was certainly not examined.
It is exactly this type of "Hostile Action" that the International Syria Support Group (ISSG) agreed would cease on Thursday (18/2/16) in preparation for wider ceasefire negotiations.
Obviously the fact that the same media outlets who report the White Helmets' claims as fact also reported Friday's (12/2/16) agreement as a "ceasefire" really highlights the problem.
Unfortunately because the US decided to air its dirty laundry in public at this past weekend's three day Munich Security Conference Saudi Arabia got wind of this.
So yesterday they ordered the arrest/kidnapping of four US journalists in Bahrain. Ever since Saudi troops rolled across the causeway in March 2011 to brutally crush a popular uprising Bahrain has been nothing more then a client state of Saudi Arabia. The message was quite clear; Saudi Arabia will target any western journalist of new agency that dares to report the truth.
Fortunately for the US the Israelis then got involved briefly arresting the Jerusalem bureau chief of the Washington Post on charges of "inciting violence." Not only did this lead to the four US journalist being immediately freed the Saudis also freed the three US citizens they'd been holding hostage in Iraq since January 15th (15/1/16) in an effort to sow division between the US and the Shia militias who are fighting the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in Iraq.
The locations of yesterday's strikes were also significant. Azaz is of course the Al Qaeda occupied town that Turkey is currently shelling to prevent the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) from liberating. As Al Qaeda are named in various United Nations Security Council (UNSC) Resolutions there is no suggestion that Azaz will be covered by any ceasefire. I hope this post doesn't clash with the closed door UNSC meeting on Turkey's terrorist actions. However with closed door sessions it is always hard to tell.
Similarly Maaret al-Numan sits on the main Highway 60 which runs from the capital Damascus to the Al Qaeda/ISIL occupied Aleppo City. As such it controls the main supply route needed to liberate Aleppo City and therefore - for the same reason as Azaz - will not be covered by any future ceasefire.
It was of course the US who designated the bombing of hospitals as the lingua franca (bridging language) for discussions about war crimes and crimes against humanity in Syria with their much more ferocious attack on a hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan on October 3rd (3/10/15).
16:45 on 16/2/16 (UK date).
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