Numerous U.S. corporate media outlets, headed by Reuters, have over the past 24 hours been reporting a major threat of warfare and connecting it to Russia, Iran, and Syria, in what appears to be a major escalation of hostilities in the wake of the U.S. air strikes on Thursday. The only problem is that the “joint command center” the reports are relying on for the statement, doesn’t appear to exist.

Pointed out by Adam Garrie at TheDuran.com, mainstream media outlets, Reuters, The Independent, ABC News, and the Express to name a few, along with Infowars.com and ZeroHedge, cite “Ilam al Harbi” as the media source that is reporting the following statement:

“What America waged in an aggression on Syria is a crossing of red lines. From now on we will respond with force to any aggressor or any breach of red lines from whoever it is and America knows our ability to respond well.”

A google search of “Ilam al Harbi” shows result of this story and numerous references by a Yemen Press website. However, this major threat of war apparently reported by “Ilam al Harbi” doesn’t appear on those search results. The origin of this “crossing of red lines” statement can only be found on an Al-Masdar News article, which has published an Arabic-written document claiming it’s from “the military operation rooms of Russia, Iran, Hezbollah and other allies.”

Whilst there is a joint intelligence-sharing cooperation agreement between Russia, Syria, Iran, Iraq and Hezbollah in the effort to fight ISIL, it is never referred to as a “joint command center” and is not involved in making public political statements. There is no media statement about the threat from the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation as one would expect, particularly given it made a recent statement by its spokesman on the U.S. air strikes on Friday.

Despite the statement being difficult to verify, Reuters opens its article by stating:

“A joint command center made up of the forces of Russia, Iran and militias supporting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.”

It also quotes from the Al-Masdar News statement with no question of its veracity and reports on a phone call between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iran’s Hassan Rouhani, as if it’s relevant to the same statement.

We Are Change will seek to monitor the veracity of this story over the coming days, but it currently appears that U.S. corporate media has at best, published a story without thoroughly checking the sources. At worst, it is regurgitating its own fake news in a wartime environment, as it did with WMDs in Iraq, increasing the possibility of war between nations.

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New airstrikes in the Syrian city of Khan Sheikhoun, which suffered chemical attacks on Tuesday, have been carried out, according to “regional activist” groups in the country. The activist group did not confirm who carried out the airstrikes. An Arab news website Al-Masdar Al-‘Arabi reported that the U.S. airforce was the source of the strikes, with more than 20 killed and dozens more injured.

Al-Masdar called the attack by the U.S. a war crime.

The missiles hit an Internet coffee shop in Hanida a town in western Raqqa countryside according to Al-Masdar.

Eight victims names were released by the news agency:

Aboud Al-Share and his two sons.
Ibrahim Muhammad and his son.
Yaseen Huwidy and his son.
Hamoud Al-Aani.
Fouwaz Al-Aani.
Ahmad Al-Muhammad.
Abd Al-Baset Al-Muhammad.
Majd Al-Yaseen.

UPDATE: 11:30 A.M.  EST –

Reuters reported that the strike was the U.S.-led coalition against the Islamic State and killed 15 people including four children according to the Observatory for Human Rights.

The Observatory for Human Rights stated that one woman was killed and several others were wounded.

A Russian frigate carrying cruise missiles was recently stationed in the area in the wake of the U.S. airstrikes on Thursday as tension between the U.S. and Russia heats up.

[RELATED: Russia: Warship Steaming Towards U.S Destroyers In Response To Syrian Strike?]

[RELATED: Syrian Media: U.S Air Strike On Syria Kills Four Children]

The recent casualties add to the nine civilians and four Syrian servicemen killed and two missing from the initial U.S. airstrikes in the town. The uncertainty about who conducted the airstrikes is in light of a U.S.-Russian memorandum on Syrian air space being suspended by the Russian Foreign Ministry on Thursday.

[RELATED: Russia Memorandum on Syria “Suspended” by Putin after Trump Attack]

(THIS IS A DEVELOPING STORY CHECK BACK FOR UPDATES)

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Following Moscow’s condemnation of the U.S. attack of a Syrian airbase yesterday, the Russian Foreign Ministry has stated it’s suspending a 2015 signed memorandum on air safety in Syria, striking a first major blow in relations between the two countries since Donald Trump took office.

The memorandum, which was aimed at minimizing the risk of inflight incidents among coalition and Russian aircraft operating in Syrian airspace, has been suspended in light of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s assertion that the risk of confrontation between aerial assets of the U.S.-led coalition and Russia has “significantly increased”.

In a statement by the Russian Defence Ministry spokesman on the missile strike carried out by the US Navy against the Shayrat Air Base in Syria, Russia states:

“These actions of the American party are considered as a serious violation of the Memorandum on prevention of incidents and providing security during operations in the air space of Syria signed in 2015.”

When the memorandum was originally signed, Russia’s Ministry of Defence had indicated it “was seeking agreement that is more substantial.” The latest setback places the U.S. relations with Russia back to a similar position as under the Obama administration, as the tone of the statement suggests:

“The US administrations have changed but the methods for unleashing wars have remained the same since bombardments of Yugoslavia, Iraq, and Libya. Allegations, falsifications, grandstand playing with photos and test-tubes with pseudo results in international organizations became the reason for aggression initiation instead of an objective investigation.”

The Russian Defence Ministry also made the outlandish claim that:

“It is obvious that the American cruise missile strike had been planned long before this event.”

All this in the context of U.S. President Trump campaigning on better relations with the Kremlin than what existed during the previous administration, including fighting ISIS side-by-side with Russia, which now must be a long way off from happening.

[RELATED: Moscow Calls Trump’s Attack On Syria A ‘Violation Of International Law’]

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