Russia: White Helmets plotting false-flag chemical attack in Syria’s Idlib to accuse Damascus

The Russian Defense Ministry has warned that members of the so-called civil defense group, White Helmets, are planning to mount yet another false-flag chemical attack against civilians in Syria’s northwestern province of Idlib in order to incriminate the Damascus government.

“The Center for the Reconciliation of Opposing Sides in Syria has received information that members of the so-called humanitarian organization White Helmets are plotting a provocation with the aim of accusing government forces of launching indiscriminate strikes at ordinary people and civilian facilities,” Deputy head of the center, Rear Admiral Alexander Vadim Kulit, said on Thursday.

He added that people have been hired in the Kafr Kermin and Sarmada districts of Idlib province to take part in fake a video report.

“It is planned to be covered by reporters of English-language networks, who have arrived in Idlib de-escalation zone for that reason,” Kulit noted.

The White Helmets group, which claims to be a humanitarian NGO, is known for its coordination with terror outfits in Syria to carry out staged chemical attacks in order to falsely incriminate Syrian government forces and fabricate pretexts for military strikes by a US-led military coalition present in Syria since 2014.

On April 14, 2018, the United States, Britain, and France carried out a string of airstrikes against Syria over a suspected chemical weapons attack on the city of Douma, located about 10 kilometers northeast of the capital Damascus.

That alleged attack was reported by the White Helmets group, which published videos showing them purportedly treating survivors.

Washington and its allies blamed Damascus for the Douma attack, an allegation strongly rejected by the Syrian government.

The Western media and governments have repeatedly accused the Syrian government of using chemical weapons against its own citizens in the war against terrorists.

This is while Syria surrendered its stockpile of chemical weapons in 2014 to a joint mission led by the United States and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), which oversaw the destruction of the weaponry. It has also consistently denied using chemical weapons.

Syrians stage rally in Aleppo to condemn Turkish forces’ occupation

Meanwhile, dozens of people staged a demonstration in Syria’s northwestern province of Aleppo on Thursday to condemn the presence of Turkish occupation forces in the Arab country and call for their complete withdrawal from the Syrian soil.

Syria’s official news agency, SANA, reported that residents of al-Ziyarah town, which lies in the northern flank of the province, rejected the deployment of Turkish troops and their allied militants in the area.

The participants waved national Syrian flags, condemned the brutal crimes being perpetrated by Turkish soldiers and their allies against civilians, and demanded an end to their illegitimate presence.

Turkey has deployed forces in Syria in violation of the Arab country’s territorial integrity.

Ankara-backed militants were deployed to northeastern Syria in October 2019 after Turkish military forces launched a long-threatened cross-border invasion in a declared attempt to push fighters of the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) away from border areas.

Ankara views the US-backed YPG as a terrorist organization tied to the homegrown Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has been seeking an autonomous Kurdish region in Turkey since 1984.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and other senior officials have said Damascus will respond through all legitimate means available to the ongoing ground offensive by Turkish forces in the northern part of the Arab country.