Two powerful images of wartorn Syria have come to light, which define the horror of civil war that has destroyed the country. But as it turns out, the images that are being passed off as pictures from war-ravaged Syria are not actually from Syria.
Over the past week, Syria’s army and its allies have subjected the rebel-held enclave of eastern Ghouta near Damascus to one of the heaviest bombardments of the seven-year war, killing 541 people in airstrikes.
Hundreds of images have flooded social media, drawing the world’s attention to what’s going on, of which these went viral on 25 February.
Sami Sharbek’s tweet has garnered over 56,000 retweets and 60,000 likes, clearly indicating the impact these images had.
The images used, however, are neither recent, nor even from Syria for that matter.
This image is an undated image from Gaza credited to the EPA, which reportedly shows Israeli jets on a bombing run.
While this picture was captured somewhere in Mosul on 4 March 2017.
However, it is not the first time that war images have been used to misrepresent the situation in conflict-hit countries. In fact, it has become a common trend to use false images.
In 2017, Maleeha Lodhi, Pakistan’s permanent representative to the United Nations, tried to pass off a photo of a girl from Gaza as a girl from Kashmir. Accusing India of ‘crimes against humanity ’and carrying out a ‘campaign of brutality in Kashmir’, Lodhi brandished the images and the act later turned into a huge embarrassment for Pakistan.
While photographers risk their lives to show the real impact of the war on people in conflict zones, these false circulated images have shown the pitfalls.
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