Boy given food to pose as gas victim, says Russian TV

SYRIA: Russia plans to confront the United Nations Security Council with a TV interview featuring a Syrian boy who was allegedly paid with food to pose as a victim of a chemical weapons attack in Douma.

The attack on April 7 has fuelled an escalating information war between the Kremlin and the West. International inspectors from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons have been prevented from reaching the area, which is controlled by Russian military police. The delay has led France and the US to voice concerns that Russia may be removing evidence from the site.

As many as 70 people are thought to have died in the attack, which was carried out with chlorine and sarin, according to United States officials.

Moscow claims that the interview with the boy, aired on Russian TV, proves that video footage of chemical weapons victims in the town on April 7 was faked, the aim having been to trigger Western air strikes against the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Hassan Diab, 11, told a reporter from the Rossiya 24 news channel that rebel fighters had told residents to go to a nearby hospital without saying why. ‘‘As soon as I entered, they grabbed me and started to pour water over me,’’ he said. ‘‘Then they laid me on a bed next to other people.’’

Omar Diab, the boy’s father, said his son was given ‘‘dates, biscuits and rice’’ for his role in what Russia says was a ‘‘Hollywood-style’’ production carried out by the White Helmets civil defence group, with British backing.

‘‘There was no chemical attack,’’ Omar Diab said. ‘‘My son feels great.’’

Maria Zakharova, a Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman, said the Diab family were willing to testify at the UN.

On April 9, Russian TV broadcast photographs that it said were taken at a White Helmets ‘‘film set’’. In fact, the photos were from a film financed by the Syrian government called Revolution Man. The plot concerns a foreign journalist who helps ‘‘terrorists’’ to fabricate a chemical attack by pro-Assad forces.

PHOTO: INSTAGRAM Hassan Diab, 11, says he was bribed with food to play the part of a gas attack survivor in Douma. He is pictured above at the clinic where victims were filmed, and below with his father, right.