{"id":176417,"date":"2018-09-17T06:33:28","date_gmt":"2018-09-17T06:33:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=176417"},"modified":"2018-09-19T04:20:11","modified_gmt":"2018-09-19T04:20:11","slug":"french-army-in-deir-ez-zor-photo-shown-by-media-raises-questions-about-frances-role-in-syrian-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=176417","title":{"rendered":"French army in Deir ez-Zor? Photo shown by media raises questions about France\u2019s role in Syrian war"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1 style=\"text-align: center;\">Russia Today &#8212; Sept 16, 2018<\/h1>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Aravis-infantry-vehicle.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-176418\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Aravis-infantry-vehicle.jpg\" alt=\"Aravis infantry vehicle\" width=\"480\" height=\"360\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Aravis-infantry-vehicle.jpg 480w, https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Aravis-infantry-vehicle-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">A French army vehicle spotted in a photo taken in Deir ez-Zor province has led to questions about the extent of Paris\u2019s involvement in the Syrian conflict. The image was reportedly shared by the US military on social media.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">The vehicle in question is a wheeled armored personnel carrier equipped with a turret, which resembles the French army\u2019s Aravis infantry mobility vehicle. It can be seen in the background of the photo, which purportedly shows US troops lending support to Syrian armed groups fighting Islamic State in the eastern province.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\"><a style=\"color: #ccffff;\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Syrie?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#Syrie<\/a> un <a style=\"color: #ccffff;\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Aravis?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#Aravis<\/a> des forces fran\u00e7aises <a style=\"color: #ccffff;\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/France?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#France<\/a> ds une photo <a style=\"color: #ccffff;\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SOJTFOIR?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@SOJTFOIR<\/a> US \u00e0 l\u2019extr\u00eame est de l\u2019Euphrate un des derniers r\u00e9duits de l\u2019<a style=\"color: #ccffff;\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/EI?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#EI<\/a><a style=\"color: #ccffff;\" href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/frqhLSLUjA\">pic.twitter.com\/frqhLSLUjA<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">\u2014 Wassim Nasr (@SimNasr) <a style=\"color: #ccffff;\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SimNasr\/status\/1039976245923065857?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">12 septembre 2018<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">France 24 journalist Wassim Nasr was the first to draw attention to the picture. He said it was released by the US Special Ops Joint Task Force in Iraq and Syria on Wednesday, before being promptly removed \u2013 possibly at the request of French authorities.<\/span><\/p>\n<div align=\"center\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/JINluxsbjOA?rel=0\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<div align=\"center\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: left;\" align=\"center\">\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">France is part of the US-led coalition in Syria and has been actively participating in the aerial campaign in the region. Notably, it was involved in a joint airstrike with the US and the UK in April following an alleged chemical attack on Douma, a then rebel-held suburb of Damascus.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">The French government, however, has never said that it has troops on the ground in Deir ez-Zor.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">But, the military vehicle in the photo has to be French, according to Nasr.<em> \u201cWe know for sure that it is a French vehicle because of its mark \u2013 it is an Aravis,\u201d<\/em> he said, adding that<em> \u201conly the French Army and the Saudi Army\u201d <\/em>have such vehicles, and that the Saudis are not known to be present in Deir ez-Zor.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">He also said that similar vehicles have been seen in Syria on \u201cnumerous occasions\u201d, in the territories controlled by US-backed militants, such as Manbij. The journalist said that the picture was taken in August of this year.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">While France 24 reported on the issue, neither the French Army nor the US military have commented so far.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">The US Defense Secretary James Mattis, however, told Congress in late April that France had sent special forces to Syria, and \u201creinforced\u2019 Washington in its fight against Islamic State, but didn\u2019t go into further details. Deir ez-Zor province is one of the few remaining areas of the country where ISIL still maintains a presence.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">RT could not independently verify the authenticity of the photo reported to have been shared by the U.S. military.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rt.com\/news\/438550-france-on-ground-syria\/\">Source <\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>French infantry vehicle caught on video raises questions about the extent of French military involvement in the conflict<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[83],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-176417","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-syria"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176417","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=176417"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176417\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":176443,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176417\/revisions\/176443"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=176417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=176417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=176417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}