Staged Videos Shot in Syria to Show Shelling Aftermath — Russian Reconciliation Renter

HMEIMIM- Camera operators working for the Al-Jazeera television broadcaster were shooting ‘staged videos’ of the aftermath of shelling and airstrikes in Syria last week, the Russian center for reconciliation of warring sides in Syria said on Saturday, according to Itar Tass.

“According to some sources among local civilians and from opposition units, special ‘video teams’ were shooting ‘staged’ films in the populated localities of Serakab and Jisr-al-Shuqur over the past week about the aftermath of purported shelling and airstrikes, including with the use of ‘toxic substances’,” the statement said. “Moreover, local people recognized TV camera men, known for shooting news for the Al-Jazeera TV channel in the area, among ‘advisers to ‘video teams’.”

 Russian officials “maintain contacts needed to exclude any provocations by terrorists,” aimed at derailing the memorandum, the statement says.

Sputnik news agency reported that it is not the first time such reports emerge. On May 2, Al Mayadeen broadcaster reported, citing local sources and eyewitnesses, that a group of the so-called White Helmets’ activists accompanied by one of the Arab satellite channels arrived in the area near Idlib in Syria to shoot staged videos allegedly depicting consequences of a chemical attack.

White Helmets is an organization that claims to have saved tens of thousands of lives. However, the Swedish Doctors for Human Rights (SWEDHR) non-governemntal issued a report earlier in the year, stating that the “lifesaving” procedures shown in the videos published by the White Helmets are incorrect, fake and “ultimately performed on dead children.”

H.M