Accusing the Syrian govt forces of killing peaceful protesters was the perfect way to hide the fact that Syrian army/ security personnel were getting ambushed and killed by not so peaceful protesters.. Sharmine Narwani; The first Syrian soldiers to be killed in the conflict, Sa’er Yahya Merhej and Habeel Anis Dayoub, were killed on March 23 in Daraa. Two days after those first military casualties, Ala’a Nafez Salman was gunned down in Latakia. On April 9, Ayham Mohammad Ghazali was shot dead in Douma, south of Damascus. The first soldier killing in Homs Province – in Teldo – was on April 10 when Eissa Shaaban Fayyad was shot. April 10 was also the day when we learned of the first massacre of Syrian soldiers – in Banyas, Tartous – when nine troops were ambushed and gunned down on a passing bus. The BBC, Al Jazeera and the Guardian all initially quoted witnesses claiming the dead soldiers were “defectors” shot by the Syrian army for refusing to fire on civilians. That narrative was debunked later, but the story that soldiers were being killed by their own commanders stuck hard throughout 2011 – and gave the media an excuse to ignore stories that security forces were being targeted by armed groups. rt/op-edge/157412-syria-hidden-massacre-2011/
Posted on: Sat, 03 Jan 2015 21:21:15 +0000
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