Fox, the London Telegraph, and the Daily Mail all published articles promoting a video claiming to show a Syrian boy rescuing a young girl amid heavy gunfire during Syria’s ongoing conflict. The Daily Mail article claimed under its titled, “Heroic young boy runs through sniper fire in Syria, pretends to get shot, then rescues terrrified girl as bullets hit the floor around them,” that:
Yabroud was the last rebel stronghold held by the FSA on the Lebanese border before it fell to Assad’s forces in March 2014.
The video, which was uploaded yesterday, has already had nearly 500,000 views.
It was later re-published on YouTube by Sham News Network, which is run by activists based in Damascus.
Several YouTube comments claim the video is fake, but experts told The Telegraph they have no reason to doubt its authenticity.
The Telegraph, referenced by the Daily Mail, in an article titled, “Watch: Syrian ‘hero boy’ appears to brave sniper fire to rescue terrified girl in dramatic video,” would claim:
The Telegraph cannot independently verify the footage but it is thought the incident took place in Yabroud – a town near the Lebanese border which was the last stronghold of the moderate Free Syrian Army. Experts tell the paper they have no reason to doubt its authenticity.
It would not be the first time gunmen had targeted children in the nearly four years of bloody civil war.
More than 11,000 children have died in war-torn Syria since 2011, including hundreds targeted by snipers, a report by the London-based Oxford Research group revealed earlier this month.
The group found that sniper fire killed 389 Syrian children under the age of 17 between March 2011 and August 2013.
The UN has previously accused the Syrian regime of “crimes against humanity” – including the use of snipers against small children.
Nowhere does the Telegraph claim “experts” of any kind believed the video was authentic. Instead, what the Telegraph did was engage in the same intentionally misleading, manipulative propaganda much of the Western media has resorted to in its coverage of the Syrian conflict, and many others, for years – cite a baseless, unverified claim – then roll it in together with other baseless claims so that they appear to support one another as factual.
While the Daily Mail claims “experts” claimed “they have no reason to doubt its authenticity,” those who have witnessed the West’s intentional, systematic deceit throughout the duration of the Syrian conflict could cite many reasons. With it now confirmed that the above mentioned video is a hoax, yet another reason still can be cited.
Indeed, the video was a complete hoax – a literal production filmed in Malta, not Syria, and consisting of actors, actresses, and special effects. The UK Mirror in its article, “Footage of Syrian ‘hero boy’ dodging sniper’s bullets to save girl revealed as FAKE,” would finally admit:
Lars Klevberg, 34, from Oslo, devised the hoax after watching news coverage of the troubles in Syria.
He told BBC Trending: “If I could make a film and pretend it was real, people would share it and react with hope.
“We shot it in Malta in May this year on a set that was used for other famous movies like Troy and Gladiator.
“The little boy and girl are professional actors from Malta. The voices in the background are Syrian refugees living in Malta.”
Not the First Time
Klevberg admits that “Syrian refugees living in Malta” participated in his propaganda stunt. This is far from the first time the West and its proxies have been caught blatantly producing false reports, footage, and claims regarding the Syrian conflict. In fact, the Western media’s coverage of the Syrian conflict is nothing more than a series of deceptions crutching their way along on their audience’s perceived ignorance, from one exposed sham to another.
During the beginning of the Syrian conflict in 2011, there was “Gay Girl in Damascus” who turned out to be a 40 year-old American man based in the UK. It is exactly “activist-based” footage, claims, and alleged personalities that the West has based its case against the Syrian government on.
There was also “Syria Danny,” a regular guest on CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360 until he was caught blatantly staging chaos off-camera ahead of a scheduled call-in.
Now, yet more staged videos, fabricated claims, and accusations are making their rounds – and being exposed – at yet another critical juncture during the Syrian conflict – with terrorist strongholds falling to the Syrian government and the West’s “Islamic State” rouse falling apart.
It is important that each of these fabrications, hoaxes, and staged productions are mentioned, again and again, when next the West parades out unverified claims it attempts to resell its narrative and agenda with. It is also critical to understand why exactly many in the general public continue to place their trust in media enterprises that continuously and now quite overtly, deceive the public.
