Fake News Attack: Clashes Between Pro-Russian & Pro-Iranian Factions In Syria
On January 28, the Turkish state-run news agency Anadolu Agency (link) and several Russian-language media outlets (link) started to spread rumors about alleged clashes between “the pro-Russian Tiger Forces” and “the pro-Iranian 4th Division” in northwestern Hama, near the villages of “Shahta, Bredidg, Innab and Haydariye”.
Citing “sources in Syria”, Anadolu Agency said that the reason of the clashes is some “differences” and the sides are deploying reinforcements in the area. The state-un media outlet also claimed that there were casualties among the sides. The wild speculations went further and Anadolu Agency stressed that “local sources” say that the clashes are a part of the plan to “limit Iranian influence” in the region.
The aforementioned media outlets present these reports as some kind of fresh data. However, in fact, this is a week-old fairy tale.
Originally, reports about “clashes” between “pro-Iranian” and “pro-Russian sources” appeared on January 22 when al Modon Online (link) said that they were taking place in the area. However, the al Modon Online version was a bit different. According to it, the pro-Russian force was consisting of members from “the 8th Division” and the “5th Assault Corps”. Later, this rumor was spreaded by some anti-Russian and anti-Assad bloggers. Some versions even claimed that 70-100 people were killed in the clashes. No media outlet was able to provide evidence of these clashes besides claims of “anonymous sources”. By January 28, this rumor had developed and the part about the causalties” had disappeared to make it more reliable.
Now, this baseless rumor is being spreaded by Russian-language mainstream media outlets. The similar situation was observed in 2018 when various mainstream media outlets were claiming that “hundreds” of “Russian fighters” were killed by the US-led coalition in the province of Deir Ezzor (source):
https://southfront.org/fake-news-attack-turkish-state-media-claims-pro-russian-pro-iranian-factions-clash-in-syria/