This article was collaboratively researched and written by the Bellingcat Investigation Team. Introduction In August 2017, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued its first ever arrest warrant solely based on social media evidence. The arrest warrant accuses Mahmoud Mustafa Busayf Al-Werfalli (hereafter referred to as ‘Werfalli’), an alleged commander of the Al-Saiqa Brigade of the…
This post was originally by Bellingcat for Planet Stories. In late September, Russian media outlets reported that the Russian military built a bridge across the Euphrates River near the city of Deir ez-Zor in Syria. Specifically, RT reported on September 26 that Russian military personnel had managed to build the bridge in fewer than 48 hours, despite constant…
Strike One On 28 Sep 2017 the Russian Ministry of Defence released footage of an airstrike in Idlib province (MoD video 1). Titled “Elimination of concentration of insurgents in Idlib province” and lasting 11 seconds, it showed an airstrike on the entrance of what appeared to be a tunnel. It did not state on what…
On 19 September 2017, just four days after the Astana International meeting establishing Syria’s De-Escalation Zones in many parts of the country, and only days after the United Nations’ Commission of Inquiry presented findings of a fact-finding mission confirming the illegal use of chemical weapons and the systemic targeting of medical facilities by the Syrian…
The following timeline details the day-to-day events of the three-month rebel offensive to capture the al-Manshiyah neighborhood of the southern Syrian city of Dara’a. Documenting this battle relied almost exclusively on the recently removed opposition group al-Bunyan al-Marsous’ Telegram channel. With the exception of the geo-location maps, all pictures and statements shown below were originally…
Through the course of the Syrian conflict, there have been multiple allegations related to the use of Sarin as a chemical weapon. While the April 4, 2017 Khan Sheikhoun and August 21, 2013 Damascus attacks are what most people are familiar with, Sarin has been used as a chemical weapon in Syria on multiple occasions, often…
Warning: this article contains graphic material. Update: Incident One, Four and Five have been geolocated. In Short: The International Criminal Court issued its first ever arrest warrant solely based on social media evidence; This warrant is a significant development and aligns the Court with the realities of today’s conflict zones; All seven videos on which…
Laurence Bindner, Raphael Gluck This article was originally published in French on Ultima Ratio. Since partly going underground in the deep-web, ISIS exerts continuous pressure to make its propaganda surface on the public web. Adapting constantly to ever more active censorship, ISIS uses the various web platforms in an opportunistic and agile way. Therefore, online…
Belgian authorities have started to disclose identities of foreign terrorist fighters who weren’t prosecuted yet, forced to do so in order to freeze their assets. Using a law from 2006, they can only impose “specific measures against certain people and entities in the fight against the financing of terrorism” when the names are published in the official journal ‘Belgisch Staatsblad/Moniteur belge’.
Introduction Now the so-called Islamic State (IS) has lost Mosul as their capital in Iraq, two isolated pockets remain where the terror group has control over land, namely Tel Afar and Hawijah. Sustaining their military operations has become more difficult now IS has lost access to their abundant oil resources, both wells and refineries. Reporting…
