White Helmets plotting false-flag chemical attack in Syria: Russia

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.