Assad Accused of Dropping Incendiary Bombs in Idlib Days After US Strikes

When we reported on Sunday night that ISIS forces had attacked a US-led base on southern Syria, we also pointed out that according to an unconfirmed report by Al Jazeera, the Assad regime had used the banned substance of White Phosphorus to attack rebel forces in the town of Idlib.

#Assad bombed #Saraqib #Idlib with #Phosphorus bombs 2017/04/09 pic.twitter.com/eGFUKOHF0C

— Kafranbel English (@kafrev) April 9, 2017

We further said that it would be an odd action for Assad to take, knowing full well the eyes of the world would be on him, and once pictures of the deadly substance are splayed across the front pages of the world’s newspapers, it would only prompt further strikes against Assad, this time perhaps on a “decapitation” nature, focusing directly on Assad’s presidential palace. Finally, we predicted “expect to hear much more about white phosphorus in the coming days: it will be the “catalyst” for the next round of Syrian airstrikes.”

One day later, the white phosphorus is now, predictably, headline news, and we can add one more term to the pre-war dictionary: incendiary bombs, because that is what – at least according to the popular one-man propaganda operation run in the UK by Abdul Rahman, is what was used by Syrian or Russian warplanes in Syria over the weekend, just days after Trump launched 59 cruise missiles into Syria.

According to Reuters, which together with the gated Times of London picked up on the unconfirmed story, “Syrian or Russian warplanes dropped incendiary bombs on areas of Idlib and Hama provinces just days after a deadly gas attack in the region, activists and a monitoring group reported on Monday.”

Well, make that one monitoring group: the same one which back in 2013 was responsible for the creation of the original YouTube video showing the “false flag” sarin gas attack, and which – unlike in 2017 – failed to provoke a military attack by the Obama regime.

For more details on the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the man behind it, Abdul Rahman, read “Meet The Man Behind The Propaganda“

In any case, the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights – whose information gathering network is seemingly better than that of any other newswire in the region – said Russian jets had used an incendiary substance called thermite in bombs they dropped over the towns of Saraqeb in Idlib and al-Latamenah in Hama, further south, on Saturday and Sunday.

There were some discrepancies and conflicting narratives, as always happens in the early stages when a new propaganda narrative is set, but hey: white phosphorus, thermite bombs, it will all look the same on the front page of the USA Today at the end of the day. 

Indeed, as Reuters notes, “a rescue worker in Saraqeb said warplanes had dropped phosphorus bombs there, but he had not heard of the use of thermite. He said use of phosphorus was not a new development. “It’s normal, these are often used,” said Laith Abdullah of the Syrian Civil Defence, also known as the White Helmets, a rescue group working in rebel-held areas.”

That’s ok, let’s assume both were used for real shock value: that will practically guarantee another military strike against Assad.  After all, that’s the whole point.

Videos posted on social media purportedly from Saraqeb on Sunday showed flaming materials hitting the ground and spreading large fires; and since by now it has become clear that any video of unknown origin is sufficient to serve a “proof”, the plot of the white phosphorus/incendiary bombs was immediately latched on to by those desperate to be in good standing with the mainstream narrative.

Meanwhile, the Observatory said thermite had first been used in the Syrian conflict in June 2016 by the Syrian government.

And just to make the even more “credible”, the objective “Observatory”, operating out of the UK, reported the Syrian warplanes allegedly deploying the thermite took off from the same air base less than a day after the U.S. attack and carried out air strikes on rebel-held areas.  Just in case the US really need an incentive for a follow up strike…