DISINFO: White Helmets terrorists plan chemical attacks to implicate Syrian army
SUMMARY
The terrorists of the White Helmets and their supporters have not stopped preparing for attacks using chemical weapons in Idlib and Hama to accuse the Syrian Arab Army of perpetrating them.
RESPONSE
Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation painting the White Helmets as terrorists and shifting blame for chemical attacks in Syria away from Damascus. The claim was neither counterbalanced nor critically challenged in the article.
The claim is made without evidence and follows an established pattern of unsubstantiated accusations regarding the White Helmets' complicity in chemical attacks in Syria. Available evidence on such attacks has yet to link a single incident to any other party than the Assad regime.
The White Helmets are a staple topic of pro-Kremlin disinformation narratives on the Syrian civil war, having already been accused of numerous other provocations and war crimes including organ trafficking; aiding terrorist organisations; staging and/or perpetrating chemical attacks, sometimes with the help of Western intelligence agencies. For more information about the importance of the White Helmets in pro-Kremlin disinformation regarding the Syrian war, see here, here, and here.
A majority of such claims are unburdened by evidence and often rely on meaningless formulations such as "according to information provided by X," "there are reasons to assume," and so forth. See here for our analysis of how the Kremlin uses conspiracy theories to whitewash Assad's record of chemical warfare.
See similar cases that the White Helmets and terrorists are preparing a chemical attack in Syria's Idlib, and that terrorists and White Helmets plan false flag attacks in Syria.