Members of the so-called civil defense group White Helmets recover bodies in the town of Ma’arrat Misrin following purported airstrikes in Syria’s northwestern province of Idlib, on March 5, 2020. (Photo by AFP)

Russia’s Foreign Ministry says members of the so-called civil defense group White Helmets continue to collude with foreign-sponsored Takfiri terrorists operating in Syria, and are involved in acts of looting and robbery under the guise of humanitarian activities.

Western sponsors have not yet abandoned their support for the White Helmets and its affiliated outfits. We have repeatedly pointed to the fact that the humanitarian label of the group actually lies in plunder, extortion, robbery, intentional misinformation, false-flag chemical attacks, air and artillery strikes, and simply direct collusion with terrorism, the Arabic service of Russia’s Sputnik news agency quoted spokeswoman for Russia’s Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova as saying during a press briefing in Moscow on Thursday.

Earlier this year, Director of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service, Sergey Naryshkin, said Western intelligence services are sponsoring White Helmets and offering complete support to them to propagate fake news in a bid to incriminate Syrian government forces as a pretext for possible acts of aggression on army troops.

The White Helmets is an organization financed by intelligence services overseas... It is fulfilling their objective within the framework of a propaganda campaign against the Syrian people, and the Syrian Arab Republic at large, the high-ranking Russian official said at the time.

He added that the Russian military has proven that the video footage of an alleged chemical attack in the city of Douma, located about 10 kilometers (6 miles) northeast of the capital Damascus, back in April 2018 was staged and a false-flag operation indeed.

The White Helmets group is known for its coordination with terror outfits in Syria to carry out staged chemical attacks aimed at falsely incriminating the Syrian government forces and inventing pretexts for possible acts of aggression on army troops by a United States-led military coalition present in Syria since roughly 2014.

The group has been involved in such attacks before.

SOURCE: PRESS TV