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Our initial priority was to try and track down the earliest version of the video available online, as the version prompting the Twitter conversation was clearly a ‘scrape’ or copy. The most promising...
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At this point, a piece of good fortune intervened. While moving the cursor along the timeline in search of a specific frame in the footage, it was noticed that the logo, while not appearing in the...
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We took another screen grab and reached out for assistance to a Twitter contact who we know to be knowledgable on Syria, and who had already been involved in the online conversations surrounding the...
View ArticleYoutube by jnosra
While we do not know what links, if any, exist between Jabhat al-Nusra and the ‘Shield Mountain Brigade’, it is notable that videos attributed to Jabhat al-Nusra have consistently carried a distinctive...
View ArticleTweet by Zaid Benjamin
Much of the social media conversation turned to the responsibility for the executions, with jihadist group Jabhat al-Nusra being singled out:#BREAKING: Jabhat al-Nusra is behind the summery execution...
View ArticleYoutube by Wesam Hs
Several hours later, a further Arabic-language search for Hamicho, the location named as the site of the incident, turned up this video. Although uploaded to a rarely used YouTube channel, it clearly...
View ArticleQuote by Amnesty International
Amnesty International released a statement condemning what it called an “utter disregard for international humanitarian law”:Ann Harrison, Amnesty International’s Deputy Middle East and North Africa...
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The wider view of the buildings, and the presence of a tower, meant a greater possibility of being able to geo-locate the video. Taking a lead from the reports, it was a matter of searching along the...
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Shortly afterward, the most graphic of the videos was removed from the Der3algabal YouTube channel. With this possibility in mind, Storyful had downloaded and preserved a copy of the footage.
View ArticleQuote by Syrian Observatory for Human Rights
The SOHR had earlier carried a report on its website referring to the deaths of 28 members of the army being killed in an attack on what was called the Hamicho checkpoint between Saraqib and...
View ArticleYoutube by Sarmin Almgd
This video, uploaded at 21:23 GMT on November 1 to a YouTube channel using the same username as the Bambuser account, shows the same buildings, but from the north-east. The Arabic-language description...
View ArticleYoutube by der3algabal
The next step was to translate ‘Mountain Shield Brigade’ to Arabic, via Google Translate, and search YouTube again. It immediately led us to a YouTube channel to which the same video had been uploaded...
View ArticleQuote by United Nations Human Rights
On November 2, a Spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights made a statement saying the incident could constitute a war crime:Like other videos of this sort, it is difficult to verify...
View ArticleYoutube by Souria2011archives
The video and, later, the ‘alnosra’ account hosting it were later taken down. The logo is shown at the top left of this ‘scrape’ or duplicate:
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A translation of ‘Mountain Shield Brigade’ to Arabic, via Google Translate led us to a Facebook account that prominently displayed the logo, corroborating the information. A link from that account to...
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Much of the social media conversation turned to the responsibility for the executions, with jihadist group Jabhat al-Nusra being singled out. While we do not know what links, if any, exist between...
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By using social media, satellite imagery, and our contacts, Storyful was able to establish a quite precise timeline of the rebel assault on the Hamicho checkpoint, and its exact location. By drilling...
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