DISINFO: White Helmets are a wing of terrorist organisations in Syria
SUMMARY
The White Helmets organisation, which presents itself as a structure designed to save the civilian population in war zones, belongs to terrorist groups. The Syrian President announced that Damascus had proof of this. The White Helmets’ activities in Syria represent “communications operations”. This organisation is “a wing of the Front al-Nusra terrorist group”. Among these so-called “angels” of the White Helmets, there are the faces of those who were part of the ranks of Al-Qaeda. There are those who beheaded people and who ate the heart of a dead soldier. All of this can easily be found on the Internet. In addition, the Russian Diplomacy accused the White Helmets of being part of a disinformation campaign to discredit Russia’s actions in the Idlib de-escalation zone. The organisation is also suspected of being responsible for the provocation that gave the West an excuse to accuse Damascus of using chemical weapons in the Syrian city of Douma in April 2018.
RESPONSE
Recurrent disinformation narrative. Pro-Kremlin media routinely accuse the White Helmets of “working for terrorists” and giving biased information to the Western media. No evidence is given to support these claims. The "White Helmets" movement originated in Syria in 2012. Volunteers save people from the rubble after bombings, despite the danger of dying themselves as a result of repeated air strikes. Activists have documented the use of chemical weapons in Syria, later confirmed by The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW). Because of this, they have become the target of an extensive Russian disinformation campaign. Thus, OPCW said it found reasonable grounds to believe that chlorine was used as a weapon in the Douma district of Eastern Ghouta, Syria in April 2018. See more disinformation cases about the White Helmets here.