Russia’s state-run media on Tuesday broadcast the Defense Ministry’s tweets of video game footage that claimed to show “irrefutable evidence” that militants in the Middle East were enjoying the U.S. military’s protection.
The Defense ministry's statements in English claimed that Russian drones filmed Islamic State convoys fleeing Syrian and Russian airstrikes along the Iraqi-Syrian border on Nov. 9. IS is a terrorist group banned in Russia.
The ministry attached four screenshots of “irrefutable evidence” that U.S. forces refused to attack the convoy, in effect providing cover for the IS fighters.
One of the screenshots was taken from a mobile simulation video game called “AC-130 Gunship Simulator,” while the others were taken from 2016 videos filmed in Iraq.
Almost immediately after the ministry published the video game footage, Twitter and Telegram users provided their own video game screenshots claiming to provide “irrefutable evidence” to back up the Russian ministry’s claims.
On Tuesday afternoon, Russian state media also broadcast the footage as part of their news coverage.
The latest faux-pas comes less than half a year after filmmaker Oliver Stone depicted President Vladimir Putin showing him a 2013 video that was passed as Russia bombing the Islamic State in Syria.
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