صحافي بريطاني: “الجيش السوري الحر” حاول التسبّب في قتلي مع زملاء
(دي برس)
أفادت صحيفة (الغارديان) الجمعة 8-6-2012، أن صحافياً بريطانياً اتهم مسلحين متمردين تابعين لـ”الجيش السوري الحر” بمحاولة التسبب في مقتله في سوريا، بعد إطلاق النار على السيارة التي كانت تقله مع زملائه وإجبارها على تغيير مسارها حسبما أفادت وكالة يونايتد برس انرناشيونال.
وقالت الصحيفة إن أليكس طومسون، كبير مراسلي القناة الرابعة التلفزيونية البريطانية، زعم أن المسلحين المتمردين حاولوا عمداً التسبب في مقتله وطاقم فريقه بنيران قوات الحكومة السورية في محاولة لتشويه سمعة نظام الرئيس بشار الأسد.
ونقلت عن طومسون قوله إن مجموعة صغيرة من “الجيش السوري الحر”، قادت عمداً السيارة التي كانت تقله وفريق عمل القناة الرابعة التلفزيونية الى منطقة وصفها بأنها “منطقة إطلاق نار عشوائي” على طريق مقطوعة في منطقة “مُحرّمة” بالقرب من بلدة القصير، معتبراً أن “قتل الصحافيين ليس من مصلحة النظام”.
ونسبت الصحيفة إلى طومسون قوله إن “سيارات مراقبي الأمم المتحدة التي كان فريقه يتنقل معها في وقت لاحق تخلّت عنهم حين طوقها مسلحون وهم يهتفون، وقام 4 رجال يستقلون سيارة سوداء اللون بقيادة سيارتهم إلى منطقة مهجورة تحيط بها قوات الجيش السوري وقوات المتمردين، حيث تم إطلاق النار عليها وإجبارها على اتخاذ إجراءات مراوغة، والسير في طريق آخر”.
وأضاف تومسون أن “الرجال الأربعة في السيارة السوداء طلبوا من سيارة فريقه اللحاق بهم وقادوها إلى طريق مغلق وفي أرض مهجورة، حيث تم إطلاق النار على سيارتهم، فاضطروا للتحرك بسرعة إلى أقرب شارع جانبي للإختباء فيه، وتبيّن لهم أن السيارة السوداء قادتهم إلى فخ”.
وقال إن سيارتهم “عثرت على الطريق الصحيح وعادت إلى دمشق.. واتضح لهم تماماً في ما بعد أن المتمردين المسلحين خططوا عن عمد للتسبب في قتلهم بنيران الجيش السوري”.
وأشارت (الغارديان) إلى أن الحادث وقع في نهاية عطلة الأسبوع الماضي، وعاد طومسون وفريقه إلى المملكة المتحدة الآن.
Syrian rebels tried to get me killed, says Channel 4 correspondent
Alex Thomson says crew was led to ‘free-fire zone’ as deaths would discredit Bashar al-Assad’s regime
Channel 4 News correspondent Alex Thomson said his team were fired upon and forced to take evasive action
The chief correspondent of Channel 4 News has claimed that Syrian rebels deliberately tried to get him and his crew killed by gunfire from government forces in a bid to discredit the regime of Bashar al-Assad.
Alex Thomson alleged a small group from the Free Syrian Army deliberately guided the vehicle in which he and his Channel 4 News colleagues were travelling into what he described as a “free-fire zone” on a blocked road near the city of al-Qusayr, because “dead journos are bad for Damascus”.
Thomson said that after being led into a “no man’s land” between Syrian army and rebel forces by four men in a black car, his team were fired upon and forced to take evasive action, eventually managing to “floor it back to the road we’d been led in on”.
He also claimed that later on the same car of rebels blocked the road between their vehicle and the UN vehicles accompanying them, which he said prompted the UN escort to drive off and abandon them after seeing the Channel 4 team surrounded by “shouting militia”. The incident took place last weekend and Thomson is now back in the UK.
“Suddenly four men in a black car beckon us to follow. We move out behind,” Thomson wrote in a Channel 4 News website blog published on Friday/ morning.
“We are led another route. Led in fact, straight into a free-fire zone. Told by the Free Syrian Army to follow a road that was blocked off in the middle of no-man’s land,” he added.
“At that point there was the crack of a bullet and one of the slower three-point turns I’ve experienced. We screamed off into the nearest side-street for cover. Another dead end.
“There was no option but to drive back out on to the sniping ground and floor it back to the road we’d been led in on. Predictably the black car was there which had led us to the trap. They roared off as soon as we reappeared.
“I’m quite clear the rebels deliberately set us up to be shot by the Syrian army. Dead journos are bad for Damascus.”
Thomson said this conviction was only strengthened half an hour later when “our four friends in the same beaten-up black car suddenly pulled out of a side street, blocking us from the UN vehicles ahead”.
“The UN duly drove back past us, witnessed us surrounded by shouting militia, and left town. Eventually we got out too and on the right route, back to Damascus,” he added.
“In a war where they slit the throats of toddlers back to the spine, what’s the big deal in sending a van full of journalists into the killing zone? It was nothing personal.”
A spokeswoman for ITN-produced Channel 4 News said: “The safety of our journalists is of paramount importance and we only ever send experienced teams into these hostile environments.
“Alex is an incredibly experienced journalist who has covered conflicts around the world for more than two decades and has used social media to share the full detail of these assignments. We will be reviewing this trip, as we do with every other foreign send and sharing the review across ITN as we continue to cover this complex and important story.”
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