Jabhat al Nusra fighter
© AFP 2019/RAMI AL-SAYEDJabhat al Nusra fighter
Terrorists are planning to film imitation of Syrians getting poisoned next to Russian shrapnel and spread the video online in western media, Russian military reported.

Militants of the Nusra Front terror group are preparing to stage a false-flag provocation in Syria's Idlib province to frame the Russian Aerospace Forces for allegedly attacking civilians with chemical weapons, the Russian Defence Ministry said on Friday. The ministry's Center for Syrian Reconciliation stated:
"According to residents of the Serakab settlement, in this area, Nusra Front militants are preparing a provocation with poisonous chemical substances and fragments of Russian aviation munition... The provocation is aimed at accusing the Russian Aerospace Forces of allegedly using 'chemical weapons' against civilians in the Idlib province."
The militants were planning to film the alleged poisoning of civilians next to the fragments of the Russian munition to subsequently spread the footage across social platforms and western media outlets, the military added.

"The information received by the Reconciliation Center from the residents of the Serakab settlement has been checked and confirmed with another independent source," the statement added.

Over the past weeks, terrorists have reportedly increased the number of shelling attacks on the Syrian provinces of Hama, Aleppo and Latakia. They have also been attempting to attack the positions of the Syrian army in the region. The government forces have responded by boosting their attacks on terrorists in the province of Idlib, targeting depots, artillery positions and observation posts of the al-Nusra Front terrorist group.

At the beginning of the month, Russian Defence Ministry reported that militants fired 12 rockets from Syria's Idlib de-escalation zone toward Russia's Hmeymim air base in Syria. The statement came a day after militants shelled the Hmeymim air base twice, using multiple launch rocket systems. All of those attacks, however, resulted in no deaths or destruction.