Eastern Ghouta: The latest battlefield in Syria's information War
With horrific images of the results of bombardment in Syria's Eastern Ghouta plastered across the western media , the complexity of the situation and the reality on the ground is far too easily forgotten.
The past few weeks in the western media have been dominated by the situation in Eastern Ghouta, a suburb in Damascus home to roughly over 300,000 people. It is the last rebel enclave in the capital and is controlled by a coalition of opposition groups, dominated by Jaysh al Islam (meaning army of Islam) and Hay'at Tahir Al Sham which is known as the Syrian branch of Al Qaeda and elements of the free Syrian Army. It has been subject to heavy bombardment from the Syrian Arab Army and Russian Aerospace forces in efforts to capture the area and a ground offensive is now well underway. As with every major Government offensive throughout this bloody civil war now entering it's 7th year, the television coverage has shown horrendous images of dead civilians, wounded children and the devastating destruction that has been caused with scant attention being paid to the complexity of the situation. It seems from what is being said and shown in much of the western media on Syria that Assads only objective is the systematic slaughter of his own people.
However the situation is far more complicated than that. Notably what has generally been ignored from western outlets is the fact that groups such as HTS (Hay'at Tahir Al Sham) and Jaysh al Islam have been reported many times across Syria to use civilians as human shields and preventing them from leaving and that with bombings in high density areas such as Eastern Ghouta, as it was with Aleppo and the US coalition found in Raqqa are going to produce civilian casualties. This is not to take away the responsibility from Syrian and Russian forces whose carpet bombing strategies against Islamist militants in Syria have proved to cause heavy civilian casualties and prioritise military gains on the ground of the welfare of the people in militant held areas ruthlessly. Nevertheless opposition propaganda is proving very effective once again, as it did in the offensive on Aleppo of distorting the facts on the ground and presenting a picture of a defenceless people against an evil regime. Perhaps the biggest success of the opposition in the light of Government gains in the enclave was a spokesperson of Jaysh al Islam, a Salafist Islamist group whose goal is to establish a 'Islamic State in Syria' following strict Shariah law and backed by Saudi Arabia being interviewed by BBC news as one of the so called main 'moderate' rebel groups. This is despite the views they hold and their record of killing Alawite and Shia civilians and acts of terrorism being far from moderate.
Still it is important to reiterate that Russia and Syria do not want long term humanitarian ceasefires despite the desperate need of civilians as they push to capture the enclave and cleanse the militants from Damascus. This has been shown by Russia ignoring the UN resolution for a 30 day ceasefire, instead imposing its own daily five hour humanitarian truce allowing Government forces to keep advancing. There is no doubt a pressing desire for Assad to neutralise the militants as citizens in Government held areas are also shelled daily by mortar and artillery fire from Eastern Ghouta with casualties, albeit on a smaller scale than militant held areas. Shelling and casualties in Government held areas have so far only been acknowledged by one major western news outlet with reporter Krishnan Guru-Murthy from channel four news visiting Government held areas and speaking to citizens there who were desperate for the ground offensive to get underway, which is now has.
The introduction of five hour daily truces by Russia is an attempt to ease some of the International pressure, giving civilians time to flee but not enough time for militants to properly regroup. In spite of this civilians still remain trapped in HTS and Jaysh al Islam held areas. The fact remains that in areas held by HTS and Jaysh al Islam many civilians are not allowed to escape and that the five hour daily truces are only brief respite for the heavy bombardment that follows by the SAA and Russian air force.
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However the situation is far more complicated than that. Notably what has generally been ignored from western outlets is the fact that groups such as HTS (Hay'at Tahir Al Sham) and Jaysh al Islam have been reported many times across Syria to use civilians as human shields and preventing them from leaving and that with bombings in high density areas such as Eastern Ghouta, as it was with Aleppo and the US coalition found in Raqqa are going to produce civilian casualties. This is not to take away the responsibility from Syrian and Russian forces whose carpet bombing strategies against Islamist militants in Syria have proved to cause heavy civilian casualties and prioritise military gains on the ground of the welfare of the people in militant held areas ruthlessly. Nevertheless opposition propaganda is proving very effective once again, as it did in the offensive on Aleppo of distorting the facts on the ground and presenting a picture of a defenceless people against an evil regime. Perhaps the biggest success of the opposition in the light of Government gains in the enclave was a spokesperson of Jaysh al Islam, a Salafist Islamist group whose goal is to establish a 'Islamic State in Syria' following strict Shariah law and backed by Saudi Arabia being interviewed by BBC news as one of the so called main 'moderate' rebel groups. This is despite the views they hold and their record of killing Alawite and Shia civilians and acts of terrorism being far from moderate.
Still it is important to reiterate that Russia and Syria do not want long term humanitarian ceasefires despite the desperate need of civilians as they push to capture the enclave and cleanse the militants from Damascus. This has been shown by Russia ignoring the UN resolution for a 30 day ceasefire, instead imposing its own daily five hour humanitarian truce allowing Government forces to keep advancing. There is no doubt a pressing desire for Assad to neutralise the militants as citizens in Government held areas are also shelled daily by mortar and artillery fire from Eastern Ghouta with casualties, albeit on a smaller scale than militant held areas. Shelling and casualties in Government held areas have so far only been acknowledged by one major western news outlet with reporter Krishnan Guru-Murthy from channel four news visiting Government held areas and speaking to citizens there who were desperate for the ground offensive to get underway, which is now has.
The introduction of five hour daily truces by Russia is an attempt to ease some of the International pressure, giving civilians time to flee but not enough time for militants to properly regroup. In spite of this civilians still remain trapped in HTS and Jaysh al Islam held areas. The fact remains that in areas held by HTS and Jaysh al Islam many civilians are not allowed to escape and that the five hour daily truces are only brief respite for the heavy bombardment that follows by the SAA and Russian air force.
In spite of this, the propaganda is far from limited to opposition militants and the western media with Russian and pro-Iranian news agencies dismissing claims of any human suffering whatsoever.
The War in Syria is also the latest clash between very differing Russian and Western narratives and thus the misinformation is far from one sided. Russian news agencies frequently dismiss civilian casualty figures as over-exaggerated propaganda and place the blame purely on opposition militants and focusing purely on civilian casualties committed by the opposition side. Pro-Iranian media and Syrian State media go as far to call images of dead civilians from airstrikes staged and that all the dead are terrorists. This is of course not true with the civilian death estimated at over 500.
Although both sides are spreading narrative driven information, it is far more surprising from the western media, which is known to be more reliable and balanced than its Russian counterparts. With news agencies such as the BBC selectively reporting to back the narrative of western powers being not too disimular to state sponsored news agencies such as Russian news agencies such as RT and Sputnik over Syria.
Meanwhile in the north of Syria whilst the world is distracted by the crisis in Eastern Ghouta, the Turkish and Free Syrian army continue their relentless assault on Afrin against the Kurds. The Syrian observatory of Human rights estimates that over 200 civilians have died so far in what Turkey has named 'Operation olive branch'. The US has stood by as it has watched its main ally in the fight against ISIS be attacked by its NATO ally Turkey. Despite this the Kurds have put up massive resistance and inflicted significant casualties on Turkish forces although severely outgunned and abandoned by its main ally the US, the Kurds have turned to Assad and the SAA for help. To the surprise of many analysts the Syrian Government struck a deal with the Kurds, sending 1,000 Government fighters so far to assist in Afrin in return for the territory once the Turks are repelled. This complicates hugely the western narrative on Syria and Assad with Government forces overstretched still diverting troops to help the secular democratic Kurds defend Syrian territory from a Turkish invasion. This gives a huge boost to Assad's legitimacy as well as potentially going to result in the US losing a key ally in the SDF, the only major moderate force left in Syria.
However due to it serving neither narrative, the situation in Afrin and northern Syria has been largely ignored by both the Russian and western media with the focus almost entirely on Eastern Ghouta.
Thus such as it was with Aleppo and the Syrian Civil war in general, in Eastern Ghouta it is important not to lose sight of all the facts on the ground in what is not only a civil war but due to competing interests of the West and Russia, it is also a information war.
Article by Robbie Luzi 03/03/18.
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