Konflikten i Syrien

SOHR has been accused of selective reporting, with AsiaNews saying that they covered only violent acts of the government forces against the opposition for the first two years of its existence.[12] SOHR has also been accused of reporting militant anti-government fighters among dead civilians,[13] and has been described as being "pro-opposition"[14][15][16][17] and anti-Assad.[18][19] It has been criticised for refusing to share its raw data or methodology.[20] In October 2015, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova questioned the reliability of the organization saying that it is based in London and has no ground access to Syria.[21] In March 2017, German Foreign Office spokesman Sebastian Fischer criticized the credibility of the organization and called its findings "unsubstantial" after SOHR reported that a coalition airstrike carried out on intelligence from Germany caused civilian casualties. He went on to say that it is crucial to "take into account that those, who give specific information over to them [the SOHR], have their own interests consisting of this information being presented to the public in a particular way."[22]

Orient TV reporter : "tomorrow we are launching a media campaign to cover the airstrikes on Hama country side including the usage of CW"

The government denies that it has used chemical weapons, arguing that insurgents and Islamic State fighters use toxins to frame the government or that the attacks are staged.

A pro-government journalist, Hussein Mortada, posted on his Facebook account that a military source had told him there had been an accidental explosion at a Qaeda facility containing chemical weapons. He mocked the victims and suggested that opposition groups had poisoned their own children, saying that the images of rows of youngsters being laid out in shrouds were coming to resemble “a Turkish soap opera.”

Leith Abou Fadel, the editor of a pro-government news site, presented a different version. Also citing military sources, he wrote that the Syrian military had bombed a weapons factory belonging to insurgents, causing the release of the chemicals.

The Syrian leadership has sent messages to Israel warning that any further strikes by the IDF on targets within Syria’s borders would be met with Scud rockets fired deep into the Jewish state, the Lebanese newspaper Al-Diyar reported Saturday.

The Assad regime conveyed the message to Israel via Russian mediators, the report said.