The Photos You Saw of Tripoli Gunmen With Automatic Firearms? Fake

Fauxtography strikes again..

PJMedia doubts the authenticity of AP’s photos of Sunni fighters in Tripoli:

Readers with military experience are probably already laughing at the images, but in case it isn’t obvious to everyone else: The gunmen are purportedly taking cover […] and firing at an unseen enemy, but right next to them are several unconcerned bystanders who are themselves completely exposed to any return fire, and yet making no effort to hide or seek protection. Instead, many of them are standing around calmly and even laughing and smiling (as are the gunmen in some of the pictures), probably at the ridiculousness of the obviously staged battle.

Now that I’m looking at the photos again, this makes complete sense. But why did the AP photographer stage these images?

Instead of this being an example of fauxtography as political propaganda, it’s more likely in this case that the photographer, Hussein Malla, simply wanted to boost his career and reputation by being the only one to capture exciting battle scenes as they were happening

Or perhaps said Hussein Malla could have a political agenda of his own. I wonder what a scrutiny of his background and political affiliations would reveal.. The stakes are high and the PR war is fierce. Now that I’m thinking of it, why didn’t we get any photos of the Alawi fighters?