An apparent airstrike in the Homs / Aleppo area of Syria took place in the late evening hours of Saturday, 29 April. Videos shot of the explosions feature some large ones, and one in particular that seems to be very large and has many secondary flares. One can see that these look rather like the fireworks that sparkle and flash for many seconds after the initial detonation. This type of explosion is consistent with a munitions dump getting hit, with the munitions themselves exploding after being struck.
There are reported casualties, but as yet they are considered unconfirmed, with as many as forty people reported killed.
Another video of the huge explosion at 46 Brigade arms depot in #Hama, rumours of Israeli Strikes, could be sabotage as well. pic.twitter.com/ZnmYUTq4W7
— Danny Makki (@Dannymakkisyria) April 29, 2018
RT.com, Sputnik News and Tass.com are three Russian, government supported news sites who logically would carry major headlines about this action.
However only Sputnik features anything semi-prominently about any airstrike, let alone a nuclear one. That report simply says that Israel refuses to comment one way or the other about the reported missile strikes against military bases in the Hama and Aleppo provinces. The most Israel representatives offered is admittedly a bit cryptic, but it is still not confirmation in any way:
Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman said “we have no intention to attack Russia or to interfere in domestic Syrian issues… But if somebody thinks that it is possible to launch missiles or to attack Israel or even our aircraft, no doubt we will respond and we will respond very forcefully.” The defense chief stressed that Israel “will maintain freedom of operation in all of Syria” to “prevent Iran from establishing a forward base in Syria.”
The news reporting on this was uncoordinated. SANA, Syria’s state-run agency reported that explosions were heard near Hamas and Aleppo. Other unnamed sources alleged that a missile strike at 1930 GMT (10:30pm Syrian time) targeted bases that are in use by Iranian-backed forces. This allegation was stated by Reuters.
However, one news source called this a NUCLEAR attack, executed by Israel, and featured the headline as such:
“Israel Drops Tactical Nuclear Bomb On Syria”
This is NOT true and it is a dangerous error to print.
First of all, how is this not true? A nuclear detonation has a very different character than a conventional one. It is much brighter. Even a small detonation would probably have overwhelmed the camera and probably the eyes of the person filming it too.
While the report notes a 2.6 magnitude earthquake recorded because of the explosion, this is very small, and any conventional explosives could create such a shake if the seismometer is reasonably close. Since we do not know exactly where the explosions were, we cannot make a proper attribution of the force of the blast because we need to know exactly where the explosions are and where the seismometer is. For larger earthquakes this point becomes moot as the waves from a large earthquake propagate great distances, but a 2.6 is likely to be lost in the static very easily. Most people don’t even feel a tremor like this unless it is a surface blast.
Third, the newspiece attributes this action to Israel. It would seem logical to presume that if Israel was involved in such a strike at the time reported (about 10:40 pm Syrian time), there is a good possibility that Israel would be a smoking pit within 24 hours. Something like this would galvanize the whole Arab world, and not even the USA would stop such a counterstrike, in my opinion. Global thermonuclear war is something no one wants, but such a strike would certainly meet with great punishment by many regional powers in the area.
The Treachery of Fake News
This news piece featuring the words “Nuclear Bomb” made it to someone’s page on Facebook. Naturally, seeing such a headline is potentially unsettling. While it was obvious something had to be wrong with the headline, the person who posted it seemed to believe it.
This is extremely irresponsible reporting, and this is how innocent people get killed for no reason.
After all, we may have seen such a grievously fake newspiece almost cause an open war in Syria already. The April 7th alleged “chemical attack” is seriously in doubt, but it triggered international outrage and a Western-powered air and cruise missile strike. While that action itself may have been coordinated to fulfill an optical and political purpose, it was still an extremely dangerous and potentially provocative situation.
With international sentiment often rather hot about the state of Israel, reporting things like a nuclear strike might get people aggravated enough to attack Israel back and provoke the escalation to full-scale war that some powers express desire for with Israel. This is extremely irresponsible because Israel is rather a loose cannon when it comes to war, and the possibility of it showing no restraint exists.
Worst of all, all of this distracts attention from the successful prosecution and ending of the conflict in Syria. The news media is certainly a powerful force in the world, and irresponsible use of it could get innocent people killed.
We are committed to reporting true stories in a blunt, but “just the facts” manner here. Good journalism reports the news.
It does not try to create it.
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