Thread by @Qoppa999

Analysis: Channel 4 @Channel4News @jonsnowC4 publish a pointless and self-defeating #WhiteHelmets propaganda piece allegedly showing a ‘double-tap’ airstrike targeting "rescuers"

channel4.com/news/exclusive…

It takes only 24 seconds for the first lie: since joining the WhiteHelmets 4 years ago, "almost every day has been like this".

Nope, there had been no bombing for the 9 months of cease-fire before the recent Idlib offensive!

They show typical WhiteHelmets footage of rescue under bombardment, which is then geolocated for their "double-tap" interpretation:

The first strike, on their reconstruction, hit and destroyed a house in the small village Rakaya Sijneh (Arabic: ركايا سجنة ) located in Hish (pre-war population 2472, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rakaya_Si…).

Then, WhiteHelmet teams rush to the site, and four more airstrikes come.
It is the second strike close to the house that lethally injures the ambulance driver Mohammed Shawwa.

And here's the problem: does the bombing pattern suggest deliberate targeting of rescue teams?
Or do they rush into a bomb attack on a target, irrespective of their movements?
Note the oversized display of the ambulances that in reality are only a little larger than a tree.

We simply cannot tell what was targeted, and why, nor can @Channel4News.

Only after this suggestive and misleading presentation comes the admission: "we do not know why this house was bombed".
Was it really just "a family home", as claimed by activists?

What we can tell about is the context which is completely absent in Channel 4's pseudo-investigation:

Rakaya Sinjeh is just ~10 km away from the frontline, and there's a militant base, once belonging to Faylaq al-Sham, taken over by HTS in June 2017

syrianobserver.com/EN/news/23066/…

As reported by HTS' own news agency Eba'a, Rakaya Sinjeh was among the many villages where HTS established full control in April 2018!
southfront.org/hayat-tahrir-a…

There were airstrikes on Rakaya Sinjeh already on 1 and 2 May:

thearabweekly.com/russia-and-syr…

... and again strikes with incendiary ammunition on 2/3 July (implying Russian reconnaissance spotted an important enough target)

Incidentally, Rakaya Sinjeh was also among the many places where "the war on hospitals" was alleged to happen ....

A "health center" in a tiny village? 🧐🤓
No photos found.

english.enabbaladi.net/archives/2019/…

There you are: either you believe in an alternative reality detached from real war, constructed by activists and amplified by @Channel4News, in which isolated "family homes" are bombed, rescue teams are pinpoint targeted, and even in the tiniest village hospitals are destroyed --

... or you grow up and understand the brutal reality of a real war, surely often involving indiscriminate shelling - but against a real and capable enemy!

Afterthought: it wouldn't surprise me if some of the @Channel4News journalists involved had taken a class with Bellingcat!

Same "method": take footage and accompanying storyline from activists, and then "confirm" it by geolocation plus suggestive presentation ...