ABC News ‘regrets’ using fake video of ‘Kurdish civilians being slaughtered’ that was really a gun range in Kentucky

(Screengrab from YouTube/ABC)

With President Donald Trump facing harsh criticism in the media for his decision to pull the few remaining U.S. troops out of Syria, there’s been a renewed interest in the plight of Kurds in the northern part of the country.

The tribal conflicts in the region go back centuries, and Trump declared that it was time to pull U.S. troops and halt the endless fighting on our part, despite the Kurds having allied with America in the fight against ISIS.

In the rush to report on the consequences of the president’s decision, which goes to fulfilling a Trump campaign promise of ending the conflicts in the Middle East, ABC News aired a video on Sunday that the network said depicted a Turkish attack in northern Syria against Kurdish civilians.

The footage depicts furious firepower and massive explosions.

The only problem is that the shocking footage shown appears to be pulled from a 2017 YouTube video of a military gun demonstration in Kentucky.

ABC News weekend anchor Tom Llamas played the video on “World News Tonight Sunday.”

“The situation rapidly spiraling out of control in Northern Syria,” Llamas reportedly said. “One week since President Trump ordered U.S. forces out of that region, effectively abandoning America’s allies in the fight against [the Islamic State].”

“This video right here, appearing to show Turkey’s military bombing Kurd civilians in a Syrian border town,” Llamas continued. “The Kurds, who fought alongside the U.S. against ISIS. Now, horrific reports of atrocities committed by Turkish-backed fighters on those very allies.”

According to the Washington Examiner, the video is a “hoax,” with the footage appearing to be from the Knob Creek Gun Range in West Point, Kentucky.

Confronted with this possibility, ABC News pulled the footage and expressed regret for their “error.”

“We’ve taken down video that aired on ‘World News Tonight Sunday’ and ‘Good Morning America’ this morning that appeared to be from the Syrian border immediately after questions were raised about its accuracy,” a spokesman told the Examiner. ABC News regrets the error.”

The Examiner noted that the Machine Gun Shoot and Military Gun Show are annual events at the Kentucky gun range and included additional videos from the events.

One example can be seen below:

Turkey launched an assault last week to drive the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), from the region.

The BBC reported on Monday that the Kurds are saying the Syrian government, under the brutal dictator Bashar al-Assad, has agreed to send its army to the northern border to try to halt Turkey’s military efforts against them.

There have been reports that amid the fighting, former Islamic State fighters have escaped from Ain Issa, a camp in the north, but Turkey has disputed this claim.

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