Accounts on social media circulated a post by Maher Sharaf al-Din alleging that an employee of the health directorate in Suwayda was killed on the Damascus-Suwayda road by Bedouin tribes, and claiming that the official account of an explosive device detonating inside the vehicle was untrue.
The fact-checking team followed up on the report, drawing on the findings of the Kashaf correspondent in Suwayda and on statements verified with local sources and eyewitnesses. It emerged that the identity of the person named in the claim is correct, and that he was an employee of the health directorate in Suwayda, but no documented information was available to confirm that he was on a mission to transport staff salaries at the moment of the incident.
Information gathered in the field showed that the sound of an explosion was heard at around twelve noon near the Braq area on the Damascus-Suwayda highway, and that the explosion was caused by an explosive device inside the vehicle, with no indications or sounds of gunfire recorded at the time of the incident.
Why is this claim misleading?
Distortion of content: The claim took a real incident, the killing of the employee, and reassembled its cause, attributing it to gunfire by Bedouin tribes, while the field investigation recorded no sounds of gunfire and showed that the explosion came from an explosive device inside the vehicle, thereby implying responsibility on the part of a group the facts did not connect to the incident.
