MOSCOW (Dispatches) – Russia has warned that foreign-backed terrorists are preparing to stage a series of acts of sabotage and terror attacks in Syria’s northwestern province of Idlib to implicate Syrian and Russian military forces, and fabricate pretexts for military action in the war-ravaged Arab country.
Major General Oleg Yegorov, the deputy head of Russian Defense Ministry’s Center for Reconciliation of the Opposing Sides in Syria, said on Tuesday that the center had received information that the foreign-sponsored terrorists were seeking to escalate tensions in the Idlib de-escalation zone and disrupt joint patrols being carried out by Russian and Turkish military forces through attacks on the positions of Syrian government forces and Russian troops.
Yegorov noted that militants were amassing armored vehicles, drones and multiple-launch rocket systems near al-Ziyarah, Kafrinjah and Karkur villages, preparing to launch their strike and provoke Syrian and Russian soldiers to return fire.
“Subsequently, the militants plan to publish videos on social networks that would show alleged damage to civilian infrastructure. They would then accuse the Russian and Syrian military forces of indiscriminate strikes on territories controlled by them,” the senior Russian general said.
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 U.S.-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.