Member of the Syrian Opposition Coalition’s Political Committee, Bahjat Atassi, has accused the Assad regime of using the recent earthquake disaster to hide its past crimes. Atassi said that the Assad regime is seizing aid provided by foreign countries and using pictures of the earthquake to mask areas previously bombed by its artillery, air forces, and Russian air forces.
Atassi also said that the regime is using the disaster to solicit more financial aid, but is not distributing it to those in need, instead selling it on the markets. He further notes that the regime’s media outlets are using images from the destroyed neighborhoods of eastern Aleppo and passing them off as earthquake damage, when in reality, they were previously subjected to a brutal bombing campaign by the Assad regime and Russia from 2012 to 2016.
Atassi also points out that the regime’s propaganda machine is using old videos of a child being rescued from under the rubble and claiming he was a victim of the earthquake, when in reality, he was a victim of Bashar al-Assad’s barrel bombing.
(Source: SOC’s Media Department)
