Do White Helmets save the same girl in three different places?

"SENSATION. Western-Funded White Helmets Save Same Girl in Three Different Locations”

This is how a status post on Facebook begins, which was published on December 17th, 2016 and about which we have currently received a number of inquiries.

Where the creator got this information that these are three different places is a mystery to us. We ourselves had already had this topic on the table for over a month on November 10th, 2016.

NO! It was only in one day and only in one place!

In the last few days, basically since November 7, 2016, various blogs and Facebook pages have been circulating the message of a tweet posted by journalist Abbas Juma with the words “ Actors in white helmets save the same girl in three different places. It is said that there is no good cinema in Syria .

It is the following tweet:

We can explain at this point that this is a single scene that took place on August 27, 2016.

The photos were taken on August 27, 2016, after a barrel bomb attack on Aleppo.

According to press reports, at least 16 people died in this attack. The barrel bombs were dropped from a helicopter. [ 1].

The photos come from a longer series of images taken by photographer Ameer Al Halbi.

Ameer took these pictures for an agency, which are distributed by this agency. Ameer lives locally and with the search terms “AMEER ALHALBI / AFP / Getty Images” you can find several of his images in the search engines.

The images listed above can be seen in various press articles, sometimes individually, sometimes several [2] [3].

The FOURTH picture!

However, what was neglected in the thesis about the three places is a fourth image in this series.

This image shows that there is a connection between the people depicted.

The girl is clearly passed from the man with the helmet to the man with the checkered shirt [ 4 ]. This photo shows quite clearly that there is a direct connection, both in time and space, between the people involved.

Who is the man in the yellow clothes?

However, it remains to be clarified at this point whether the man in the yellow clothing also belongs in this process. We contacted the photographer about this.

Ameer Al Halbi

The 21-year-old photographer Ameer Al Halbi lives in Aleppo and works as a freelancer [ 5 ]. We established direct contact with him and were therefore able to ask him about the pictures or chat. The chat took place exclusively in Arabic.

Of course, no one on the Mimikama team speaks fluent Arabic. We would therefore like to thank Julian Daboul, who responded quickly to our request for an interpreter and translated the content in a three-person chat.

At this point we reproduce the chat in its German translation.

Dear Ameer, the following pictures are in question: [Twitter link] Many people claim that these pictures were taken in three different places and three different days. We found out you were the photographer. Can you tell us something about the background of the photos?

First I describe the images in order from left to right.
The first picture shows a civil defense member, his name is Hasan Haj Ibrahim. You can see him taking children out of a high-rise building that was destroyed due to the attacks. The second picture shows paramedic Mahmoud Homsi, who works for the ambulance system, putting the girl in an ambulance, making sure she is not injured before returning her to her family. The third picture shows a young man who belongs to this girl and tried to take her away from the place. Note: The paramedic returned the girl to her family as she had no wounds and he rescued her from the high-rise building.

Ameer, a personal question: what do you think about the fact that people are now misusing these images for false reports?

I had a discussion with the agency as most of the people who talked about the pictures felt that they were not real. They are journalists from Russia and they are aware that Russian planes are carrying out attacks on the state and for many massacres they are looking for a loophole with which they can turn the reality around.

Yesterday I also had a conversation with a journalist from Italy and we came to the conclusion that it is difficult to explain what the perpetrator did. It is equally difficult to convey to Russian journalists and the Russian people that Russia is carrying out attacks on civilians and schools in residential areas.

OK. At the end it is clear again: the pictures come from one day and one place.

Definitely and the agency can confirm this. But I can't make the pictures available because of the contractual relationship. However, if you like, I can give you the agency email and they will definitely have no problem helping you!

Thank you very much! I won't need the pictures for my publication. The photographer’s words are important to me. I thank both of you!

Very welcome Andre, nice to meet you. Many thanks also to Julian, the translator.

A personal word

Working on this article was difficult and took time.

In addition to the normal image search and the evaluation of the results, it took some time to get in touch with the photographer. At this point, the help of Julian Daboul must also be acknowledged, who translated the content from German to Arabic tonight and then translated the answers from Arabic into German. Julian himself came to Germany from Syria in October 2012 as a refugee at the age of 13. Julian is now 17 and goes to a German school.

We would also like to thank the many people who provided important impulses with their comments in the user inquiries and thus made it possible to publish these results in the first place. Many thanks to everyone involved here!

Andre