HMEIMIM, Syria. Sept 12 (Interfax) - Nine staged chemical weapons attacks against civilians have been filmed in Syria's Idlib governorate so as to use them as evidence to put the blame on the Syrian government army, the Russian Defense Ministry said.
Members of the White Helmets NGO and militants from the terrorist group Jabhat al-Nusra (banned in Russia) were involved in filming the imitated chemical attacks, the Russian center for reconciliation of the opposing sides in Syria said on Wednesday.
"Based on the results of the filming, only two of the nine videos were approved at a joint conference of White Helmets employees and militants from the terrorist group Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham [Jabhat al-Nusra, banned in Russia] on the evening of September 11 for submitting them to the United Nations and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons after receiving a command. It's been decided that the rest of the videos should be posted on social networks because of their poor quality," it said.
The Russian Defense Ministry earlier warned that militants in Syria were preparing acts of provocations involving the use of chemical weapons to put the blame on the government forces. It said the United States planned to use these as a pretext to strike Syrian government sites.
The Russian center said the nine episodes purported to illustrate chemical weapons attacks were filmed in the community of Jisr al-Shughur on September 11 "by film crews of a number of Middle Eastern channels and the regional branch of an American news channel."
"In all of the videos, Civil Defense (White Helmets) activists provide assistance to supposedly affected Syrians," it said.