Previously we discussed a BBC News website report by David Gritten and Lucy Williamson which was published on April 3rd under the headline “Syria condemns ‘unjustified’ Israeli strikes as tensions rise over Turkey”.
HOW DID THE BBC CHOOSE TO FRAME RECENT EVENTS IN SYRIA?
As noted at the time, that report included the following portrayal of an incident which took place the previous night in south-west Syria: [emphasis added]
“It [the IDF] also said Israeli forces killed gunmen during a ground operation in Deraa province, where authorities put the death toll at nine. […]
The SOHR also reported that Israeli ground forces shelled a national park west of the southern city of Deraa on Wednesday night, killing nine gunmen who attempted to confront them.
Prior to the shelling, dozens of Israeli military vehicles had entered the al-Jabaliya Dam area near Nawa and taken up positions there, prompting “calls from the mosques in the area [to wage] jihad against the Israeli incursion”, it added.
Deraa province’s government warned that the “massacre” of nine people had sparked widespread public anger. It has not so far identified those killed.
The Israeli military confirmed that its forces had operated in Deraa overnight, “seizing weapons and destroying terrorist infrastructure”.
“Several armed men fired at our forces in the area. The forces responded with gunfire and eliminated several armed militants from the ground and air,” it added.
The military said it would “not allow a military threat to exist in Syria”.”
In another article by Williamson which was published the following day – April 4th – under the headline “Israeli strikes in Syria a challenge to Turkey”, BBC audiences were told that:
“Earlier this week, the local government in the southern city of Deraa said nine civilians were killed in an Israeli bombardment, during the deepest incursion there yet by Israeli forces.”
As reported by the Alma Center, responsibility for that attack on Israeli forces was in fact claimed by an armed group in the early hours of April 3rd.
“During the night of April 2 (Wednesday), a group of armed militants opened fire on IDF forces operating near the Jabiliya Dam, close to the towns of Tasil and Nawa in southern Syria.
According to local reports, the IDF responded with several artillery and airstrikes throughout the night in the vicinity of the dam and around Tell al-Jumoua and Tell al-Jabiye.
Local sources claim that the Israeli strikes resulted in approximately 10 dead and 10 additional injuries, most of them from the town of Nawa. It should be noted that videos circulated on various platforms show that at least some of the casualties (as well as others surrounding them) were dressed in military uniforms and carrying combat gear and weapons. […]
A few hours after the incident, the “Islamic Resistance Front in Syria” issued a statement claiming responsibility for the attack on Israeli forces, claiming they hit several soldiers and even downed an Israeli drone. However, the credibility of these claims remains questionable.”
An ITIC report on the same incident reads as follows:
Williamson’s April 4th report continues:
“Another four people were killed in Israeli shelling near the village of Koya late last month, after local gunmen tried to stop the advance of Israeli forces there.
Since then, mosques in both Deraa and Damascus have reportedly called for jihad against Israeli forces.”
The ITIC’s report on that March 25th incident in Koya (also Kuwaya or Koayiah) reads as follows:
“A “source from the Islamic Resistance Front in Syria” confirmed that organization operatives clashed with IDF forces in Kuwayya on March 25, 2025, and four operatives were killed by IDF fire. According to the source, 14 operatives have been killed since the Front began operations in January 2025. The source denied that the Front received support from Iran, Hezbollah, the Syrian Social Nationalist Party or Russia, claiming the Front had political, social, media and “military” offices, as well as a legal office operating outside Syria which planned to file a formal complaint against Israel at the International Criminal Court (al-Nahar, March 27, 2025).”
Notably, the BBC has to date not provided its audiences with any information whatsoever concerning the Islamic Resistance Front in Syria and as we see, failed to report its involvement in the above incidents.
In early March, WINEP provided a two-part profile of that group (part one, part two) which includes the following:
“In a branding process trailing back to December, the Islamic Resistance Front in Syria-Possessors of Might (Uli al-Baas, or UAB) has emerged as the first major new muqawama (resistance) group in post-Assad Syria.”
“While UAB’s kinetic capabilities remain unproven, its emergence could signal the early stages of a new Iran-backed militia formation in Syria, an outcome that was always likely post-Assad.”
Additional information is available at the Alma Center and Newsweek which, along with others, notes that:
“The imagery used by Uli al-Baas, particularly the raised Kalashnikov-style rifle, matches a signature pattern established by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and later incorporated into the logos of Lebanon’s Hezbollah, officially known as the Islamic Resistance in Lebanon, and other Axis of Resistance allies, such as the various militias that make up the Islamic Resistance in Iraq.
The term “Uli al-Baas,” which appears several times in the Quran, was also used by Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Qassem to describe the group’s confrontation with Israel after the assassination of his predecessor, Hassan Nasrallah.”
The Long War Journal also provides information about the group, noting that:
“The Islamic Resistance Front in Syria announced it is part of the Iranian-led Axis of Resistance and is the religious extension of the battle of “the promise of the Hereafter,” a reference to a Quranic verse that has been interpreted as the final battle to “liberate Palestine.””
Although she chose to quote an analyst who described Israel’s military operations in Syria as “unnecessary” in her second article, Williamson not only had nothing to tell BBC audiences about this new militia in Syria but also failed to note its role in the two incidents, one of which she found fit to describe in her reports as a “massacre” of “civilians”.
