Mr. Farouq Al Habib:

The Syria Civil Defence of the White Helmets was established as a neutral and impartial organisation. Its main aim is to provide assistance and rescue people, regardless of background. The teams extend their activities to wherever they are allowed to operate. At present, they exist in the eight regions from Dara'a to Aleppo. This includes areas under the control of the FSA, the Free Syrian Army, and those under the control of al-Nusra. There is one station in al-Baab, which is under the control of ISIS, and a station in Afrin, which is under the control of the Kurdish forces. Therefore, we work in areas under the control of all of the non-Assad groups. Most of the areas accept the work of the rescue teams because they are neutral and do not represent a political threat to them. They just provide assistance, regardless of the background of the casualty.

The White Helmets do not exist in the regime areas because, from the first day of the revolution, the regime intended to prevent any attempt by civil society to build any alternative type of institution - not only search and rescue teams but also local councils, electricity stations or anything that would allow people to live sustainably.

We currently receive international support from the UK and Denmark governments in training and equipment. We receive support from the United States through RTI to provide vehicles, ambulances and fire engines. We received support from the government of Japan also. Of course, we co-operate with other civil defence teams. When we started, we did not have the experience, and we realised later that sometimes rescue teams can cause more damage to the injured people if they are not well trained in how to rescue and transport them. We received training first from AKUT, the search and rescue organisation in Turkey. We co-operated with the fire brigade in London, which sent us some of its used equipment. Just last week we received an offer of co-operation with the chairman of the civil defence and we are always happy to co-operate with rescue teams worldwide that can help us. We dream of the day when we will be able to provide assistance for other people in other countries.

The double-tap tactic is documented in so many videos. I can send a web link to the committee, as just a week ago this happened during a live broadcast on al-Jazeera television at noon. After the first attack, an al-Jazeera reporter was filming live how the rescue workers were trying to search for the injured people under rubble. While they were broadcasting, another air strike bombed the same place and one rescue worker was killed. His name was Issam al-Saleh. I can provide the video and pictures, and there are many other related videos.