DAMASCUS (Press TV) – Western media have been eulogizing a Syrian footballer-turned-militant, who was killed during clashes with government forces, despite clear evidence indicating his support for terror outfits such as Daesh and al-Qaeda.
Abdul Baset al-Sarout, who was born in 1992, rose to fame as a goalkeeper in a youth soccer team in Syria’s Western city of Homs.
In 2011, he joined the ranks of anti-Damascus militants.
After the so-called Free Syrian Army disintegrated in late 2012, Sarout joined the Jaysh al-Izza faction, which is deeply linked to al-Qaeda’s branch in Syria, the al-Nusra Front.
On Saturday, he died of wounds he had sustained in a battle with Syrian government forces in Hama Province.
Western media reports have downplayed Sarout’s ties with terrorists and called him "the singer of the revolution,” referring to the foreign-backed militancy plaguing Syria since 2011.
He was also dubbed by those outlets "the icon of the rebellion against President Bashar Assad,” "the revolution’s nightingale,” "the voice of the insurrection,” "the hero of Homs" and "the revolution’s goalie.”
This is while in a video recorded prior to his evacuation from Homs in 2014, the Syrian youth is heard arguing that the al-Nusra Front and Daesh "have the same goals as us,” and that the terror outfits are "working for God.”
He also vowed to fight alongside terrorists against "Christians, Shias and apostates,” noting that they were not "scared of suicide belts and car bombs.”
In another video, Sarout led fellow militants in a song glorifying former al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and the September 11, 2001 attacks.
Lebanese journalist Marwa Osman said Sarout had pledged allegiance to both al-Qaeda and Daesh, but that Western media were "too arrogant” to admit the truth.