According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Russian warplanes carried out a series of attacks on ferries southeast of the Syrian city of Deir Ezzor, sinking several of the boats and killing a number of civilians who were on board.
More than 40 ferries were targeted in the strikes, which killed at least 34 civilians. Many of the bodies were recovered from the Euphrates River. There was no indication why the ferries were targeted.
This is ISIS-held territory, however, and it’s been pretty common for all factions involved to fire indiscriminately at vehicles in ISIS territory, especially those fleeing from the site of a conflict. There is no sign, however, that any ISIS were present at the strike.
Syrian troops are contesting control over the city of Deir Ezzor, which ISIS held most of up until late last week. Advancing Syrian troops relieved the defensive forces defending the last government-held part of the city, and are trying to carve out a supply line back west.
We did not hear much from the Observatory in a while. Now, they are gearing up for propaganda battle again. As most of the countryside around the city has been cleared of ISIS, the eastern pocket of the city is surrounded. But ISIS. controls other side of the river, and is free to supply its fighters in the pocket. Thus destroying ferries. Even though ferries are now commandered by ISIS and civilians are not likely to travel in ISIS occupied zone, civilians pay the orice as always. In ISIS occupied territories, civilians do all the work. Ferries would not be any different, and civilians — at the minimum those operating and maintaining are victims. However, we are back to the Observatory extraordinary powers of information gathering. They have no information sharing with either Russia or Syrian Army. They have no means of getting the information from within ISIS occupied territories. All their information is second or third hand. Why is this one man outfit run out of a flat in Coventry, receiving continuous attention? it is not bad enough to have fake news, we have fake sources. But for as long as mainstream media treats them as credible, so others will do the same. No questions asked.
We are all long way from creating a trully independent media culture, with its own standards for journalistic integrity. I understand the difficulty in being able to covey fast moving information as available. But it is possible at least put out a fair warning about reliability od the source.