Echoing Russian propaganda, Pink Floyd's co-founder Roger Waters says Syria's White Helmets are 'fake organisation'

Echoing Russian propaganda, Pink Floyd's co-founder Roger Waters says Syria's White Helmets are 'fake organisation'
Co-founder and ex-Bassist of British band Pink Floyd has repeated claims that Syria's White Helmets staged a recent chemical attack that has prompted US-led strikes against Damascus.
2 min read
15 Apr, 2018
Regime chemical weapons attacks have killed thousands of people since the start of Syria's conflict[Getty]

The founder and frontman of British band Pink Floyd has echoed Russian propaganda claims that Syria's White Helmets had staged a recent chemical attack that has prompted US-led strikes against Damascus.

Roger Waters made the accusation during a concert in Barcelona on Friday after announcing that a supporter of the volunteer first responders had wanted speak to the crowd about the deadly chemical attack.

"The White Helmets are a fake organisation that exists only to create propaganda for the jihadists and terrorists," Waters said.

"If we would listen to the propaganda of the White Helmets and others we would be encouraged to encourage our governments to go and start dropping bombs on people in Syria,"

"This would be a mistake of monumental proportions. What we should do is be persuading our governments to not to go and drop bombs on people," he added.

The musician's comments came a day after US-led strikes hit Syria in retaliation to the alleged use of chemical weapons by the regime in the town of Douma.

The attack on the last opposition-held town in Eastern Ghouta near the capital Damascus killed at least 40 people and injured over 1,000.

Russia, one of the main backers of the Syrian regime, has claimed the attack was faked by the White Helmets - on orders from the British government.

Moscow previously questioned whether the attack even took place.

London has called the claim "grotesque and absurd".

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his supporters have consistently claimed that chemical and other attacks were in fact staged, and that an army of actors including children has been trained to fake injury on a massive scale.

Chemical weapons attacks have killed thousands of people since the start of Syria's conflict, with the UN blaming four attacks on the Syrian regime and a fifth on the Islamic State group.

In 2013, up to 1,400 people were killed in two chemical weapons attacks on the opposition-controlled Damascus suburbs of Eastern and Western Ghouta.

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