First, what about the rules on arms control in Europe? Italy must observe the Common Position (eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/…) & consider human rights when granting an export license. Plus there’s an arms embargo on dealing with Russia (europa.eu/newsroom/highl…)
We cross-referenced Italian Govt records on export licences to reveal items granted for sale, transaction value & end-user country. For example we can see this 2011 lic. for sale of 10 Iveco M65E19WMs paid for & exported to Russia. Big H/T to @FrancescaCost2 for her skills here.
Why have those safeguards? Well it's to stop things like this happening - people like Al-Hassan (سهيل الحسن), commander of Syrian Army's Tiger Forces, using EU arms. He’s also subject to EU-restrictive measures for "violent oppression against the population in Syria"
Through #geolocation, we can tell that the above footage (from here ) of Al-Hassan & the Iveco was filmed during the attack on Aleppo Power Station (محطة حلب الحرارية). The power station is located here: goo.gl/maps/5PqEPsqRr….
Images from after the attack on the Aleppo Thermal Power Plant also locate an Iveco LMV at the power plant. Image below was taken here: goo.gl/maps/eXMwTAccn…, as Syrian Army forces moved in. Original imagery of attack posted by @LinaArabii ✌️
We’ve also geolocated the Iveco LMV used by Desert Hawks in Al-Rassafah (below) & by Desert Hawks/Hezbollah in Palmyra Offensive at Western Bayarat. You can read up on the full documentation of the geolocation and chronolocation in our @bellingcat post. bellingcat.com/news/2019/12/2…
So we’ve located the LMV in Syria & we’ve found some of the people that use it. But how did it get to Syria? It was transported by air, and by sea. For instance: below we can see Iveco LMVs en route to Syria by sea (H/T to the legendary @YorukIsik ✌️) 👇
In this footage () we can see the Ivecos loading on a plane at Chkalovsiy Airport in Schyolkovo (Щёлково) and landing in Syria’s Hmeimim Air Base (قاعدة حميميم الجوية), here: goo.gl/maps/HXptj2QFn….
The continued sale of the Iveco LMV to Russia indicates a breach of safeguards. But Iveco is just one of many arms manufacturers identified in the @bellingcat & @LightouseReports #EUArms project that has breached these safeguards: bellingcat.com/news/uk-and-eu…
Through this methodology of arms tracing, over countless projects in Europe we have geo/chronolocated & dug paper trail of arms transfers that fall outside commitments of these rules. Through this work, we’ve been able to contribute to claims like this
A big part (& underplayed) is the work of investigators such as @leone_hadavi, @Bashar24836440 & @FrancescaCost2 who worked on this project from their laptops at home. These great investigators are up for hire - this work is a testament to their skills. H/T to you all ✊
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
Google Earth has updated its satellite imagery of many parts of Sudan. Looking over West Darfur city of El Geneina, I am shocked at the level of destruction. In some parts, whole areas have been destroyed and cleared. Location: 13.4469, 22.4151 (dates: April 2023 & March 2024)
The burn damage around El Geneina's specialised hospital is incredible.
It's not just the widespread burning of structures that we see in El Geneina, as a result of the ongoing violence in Sudan, but there are also clear indications of structures that have been removed, like these warehouses, located at 13.43324, 22.41364
This video, reportedly showing an Israeli woman kidnapped, beaten and taken into Gaza, was filmed from Al Shuja-iyyah St in Gaza at about 10am this morning.
Verification of the location can be confirmed through the location of the minaret in the background, white dome in the near ground, and then the angle of the orange roof in comparison to the street.
Location: 31.503462, 34.466569.
Shadows seen in the footage, indicate that the sun had to have been at a position to cast those shadows in line, or just off, the same angle as the street at 10am, or just before 10am.
Lots of smoke rising over the skyline of Khartoum today as clashes continue between RSF and SAF forces in different areas of the city.
People in Sudan have shared these flyers in a plea for help over what's happening with a water purification plant that services a lot of Khartoum with clean water.
It has been badly damaged and safe access needs to be granted to allow for repairs to be made to the plant.
The water treatment plant in Bahri appears to have been damaged in the initial wave of bombings in Khartoum. In satellite imagery on Google Earth from April 15 we can see a fire in the area, imagery from @planet on April 19 published by @hrw at least one building damaged.
The findings are based on data collected from Twitter and Telegram, looking at more than 1585 accounts and 480 channels and running follow up searches on numerous platforms.
Data was collected using keywords: Khokhols, Hohols and iterations used as anti-Ukrainian national slurs
The terms were selected given their prominence in Google Search trends. For example, the screenshot below shows the increase in the search of the term Khokhol which surged significantly after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Last week I spoke at @journalismfest on how open-source intelligence is used to combat propaganda and uncover new information during Russia's war on Ukraine. Thank you for having me.
I promised to share a list of links to tools and sources. Here it is (I hope it helps) 👇
I often share digital investigation skills, cases and sources at events to help remotely answer core questions such as:
WHERE & WHEN did it happen?
WHAT happened?
WHO is responsible?
And HOW can it be visualised?
So let's start with the case studies.
1: EyesonRussia.org - our community effort to document, verify and map Russia's invasion of Ukraine and share this info with the world.
This is a running thread of satellite imagery showing the destruction seen in Turkey and Syria in the aftermath of the devastating earthquakes. #turkeyearthquake2023