FACT CHECK: Does This Video Show A Syrian Woman Asking Donald Trump To Stop Joe Biden From Bombing Syria?
A video shared on Facebook purportedly shows a Syrian woman asking former President Donald Trump to stop President Joe Biden from bombing Syria.
Verdict: False
The video, which predates the Biden administration by over a year, shows a Syrian-American woman asking Trump to intervene after deadly Russian and Syrian airstrikes in July 2019.
Fact Check:
Biden authorized Feb. 25 airstrikes on buildings that the Pentagon said were used by Iranian-backed militias, in response to earlier rocket attacks on American and coalition personnel in neighboring Iraq, The New York Times reported.
Since then, a viral TikTok video of a distraught woman speaking to the camera with rubble behind her has been circulating on Facebook. Text inside the video reads, “Syrian woman begs Trump and America to stop Biden from killing Innocent people.”
The video has been miscaptioned and predates the Biden administration by over a year, a reverse image search of key frames reveals. Check Your Fact found the video on the Bloomberg Quicktake: Now YouTube channel and in a CNN article, both of which were published in July 2019. The clip actually shows Rania Kisar, a Syrian-American woman, pleading with Trump to intervene after Russian and Syrian airstrikes hit rebel-held areas in the northwestern province of Idlib that month, including Maaret al-Numan, CNN reported.
“Mr. Trump, please, please stop them. Stop the shelling, stop the killing of these innocents,” Kisar can be heard saying in the video. “Please America, please stop them.” (RELATED: Has The US Only Admitted 11 Syrian Refugees In 2018?)
At the time, media outlets such as BBC News and The Guardian reported on the deadly July 2019 airstrikes. The U.S. government condemned the airstrikes in a July 23, 2019 statement posted on the U.S. Embassy in Syria’s website.
Biden took office in January 2021, nearly a year and a half after the video in question was published by media outlets. The Wall Street Journal reported that senior administration officials said Biden called off the strike against a second target in Syria in late February after a woman and children were seen at the site.