The
information battle on the E. Ghouta front is turning into Aleppo 2.0,
with Western media, often relying on dubious sources, describing –
in unison – the Syrian regime atrocities while nearly glorifying
terrorists’ resistance.
Over the
last few days, the mainstream media has simultaneously turned their
attention to the ongoing military operation in eastern Ghouta, a
militant-controlled suburb of Damascus, which is seeing a new wave of
clashes between Syrian government forces and Islamist factions.
While
the army aims to clear the area of such terrorist units as Jaysh
al-Islam, Jabhat Fatah al-Sham (formerly known as Al-Nusra Front),
Ahrar al-Sham, and Failaq al-Rahman, the Western media, often relying
on militant-embedded sources, continues to paint an ominous picture,
in which the government troops are deliberately slaughtering
civilians.
“A
naive viewer might imagine that Assad was just bombing civilians for
the hell of it because the jihadi fighters are totally absent from
the picture. And the pictures are literally provided by the jihadists
themselves,” Peter Ford, former UK ambassador to Syria and
Bahrain, told RT, referring to the controversial White Helmets, who
have long been hailed by the mainstream western media as heroes.
However, the UK-backed NGO has been plagued by allegations of having
close ties with terrorist groups.
Before
the Syrian government forces intensified operations against jihadist
factions in the area, Russia had been trying to broker a deal with
armed groups to stop using civilians as human shields and surrender
their weapons. Moscow has also been working to allow humanitarian aid
in.
A piece
published by The New York Times on Tuesday uses the Syrian
Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a one-man “war monitor”
based in the UK, as its source for the death toll. The article is
verbose in its descriptions of “heart-rending images” from
the scene, where Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government had
“loosed a devastating bombardment” against civilians that
“have no other choice except resisting until the last moment.”
Little to no attention is being paid to the militant forces holed up
in eastern Ghouta and their links to internationally-recognized
terrorists like Al-Nusra.
The
Guardian all-out accused Assad of war crimes and genocide, comparing
what’s going on in eastern Ghouta to the 1995 Srebrenica massacre –
where 8,000 people were killed and up to 30,000 people displaced and
abused.
Russia
is being attacked for being an ally of Damascus, as well as for
failing to enforce peace in eastern Ghouta – an area established as
one of the de-escalation zones that Moscow took it upon itself to
maintain, together with Turkey and Iran. The Russian Center for
Reconciliation in Syria, meanwhile, has offered militants a chance to
retreat, which they rejected, preferring to stay entrenched and
launch provocative attacks while hiding behind civilian human
shields.
Full
report:
Comments
Post a Comment