Fake: WP Article Complimenting Assad and Syrian Army
The Claim
The Washington Post published an article that said that President of Syria Bashar Hafez al-Assad is “very smart” and “the Syrian army is great.”
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The claim went viral, particularly on Facebook, in mid-March 2021.
Misbar’s Analysis
Misbar's investigation found that the Washington Post has not published any articles calling Assad smart or the Syrian army great. We conducted a search of all recent articles with those search terms and found nothing of note.
Further, the alleged author of the article, Heinrich Bantenoy, does not write for the Washington Post, and does not seem to even exist.
Monday, March 15, 2021 was the 10-year-anniversary of the start of the Syrian war. While the Washington Post did commemorate the event, they did not publish the article mentioned in the viral claim.
Original reporting by Anas Nassif
