White Helmets (Syrian civil war)

Not to be confused with White Helmets Commission or Syrian Civil Defence Forces.

White Helmets
الدفاع المدني السوري
AbbreviationSCD
Formation2014; 10 years ago (2014)
FounderJames Le Mesurier[1][2][3]
PurposeCivil defense
Region served
Syrian opposition-controlled areas
Head
Raed Saleh, Abdulrahman Almawwas
Volunteers
3,000 (with monthly stipend)
Websitesyriacivildefence.org

The White Helmets (Arabic: الخوذ البيضاء ,القبعات البيضاء al-Ḫawdh al-bayḍāʾ / al-Qubaʿāt al-Bayḍāʾ), officially known as Syrian Civil Defence[4] (SCD; Arabic: الدفاع المدني السوري ad-Difāʿ al-Madanī as-Sūrī), is a volunteer organisation that operates in parts of opposition-controlled Syria and in Turkey. Formed in 2014 during the Syrian Civil War, the majority of the volunteers' activity in Syria consists of medical evacuation, urban search and rescue in response to bombing, evacuation of civilians from danger areas, and essential service delivery. As of April 2018, the organisation said it had saved about 114,000 lives, and that 204 of its members had lost their lives while performing their duties. They assert their impartiality in the Syrian conflict.[5]

The organisation has been the target of a sustained disinformation campaign by supporters of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Russian state-sponsored media organisations such as RT and Sputnik; the campaign has promoted false accusations connecting it with terrorist activities and other conspiracy theories.[a]

  1. ^ Jan, Maria (21 August 2015). "Q&A: Syria's White Helmets". Al Jazeera Media Network. Retrieved 30 November 2017.
  2. ^ "Die obskuren White Helmets Archived 12 November 2019 at the Wayback Machine". Heise.de. 30 September 2016.
  3. ^ "Ordinary people turn superheroes Archived 14 April 2018 at the Wayback Machine". The Straits Times. 9 April 2017.
  4. ^ "Jihadist assault 'kills dozens of Syrian soldiers'". BBC News. 23 January 2020. Retrieved 23 January 2020.
  5. ^ Saleh, Raed. "The Most Dangerous Place in the World". The White Helmets. Retrieved 19 April 2018.
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference :1 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference Merlan was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  8. ^ Cite error: The named reference :3 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  9. ^ Cite error: The named reference Giovanni 2018 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
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  11. ^ Palma, Bethania (15 December 2016). "FACT CHECK: Syrian Rescue Organization 'The White Helmets' Are Terrorists". Snopes. Retrieved 31 March 2018.
  12. ^ Erickson, Amanda (1 March 2017). "After Oscar win, Russian Embassy calls Syria's White Helmets 'actors,' not life-savers". The Washington Post.
  13. ^ Ellis, Emma Grey (30 April 2017). "Inside the conspiracy theory that turned Syria's first responders into terrorists". Wired.com. While the White Helmets might seem like the poster children for feel-bad humanitarianism, they've in fact become the target of a [sic] internet smear campaign, one designed to bolster the regime of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad and undermine its opponents, including the United States. Various White Helmet 'truthers'—who range from Assad and his supporters to Russian embassies, and even to Alex Jones—accuse the group of staging rescue photos, belonging to al Qaeda, and being pawns of liberal bogeyman George Soros. The story of how that conspiracy grew is a perfect distillation of how disinformation can spread unchecked, supplanting fact with frenzy where no support exists.
  14. ^ "White Helmets 'staging fake attacks' in Syria? We sort fact from fiction". France 24. 14 May 2018. Retrieved 20 June 2018. For the past few months, however, the White Helmets have been the target of a smear campaign on social media, mainly led by supporters of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
  15. ^ Cite error: The named reference conversation was invoked but never defined (see the help page).


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