Russia's Ministry of Defense is under fire after it published incorrect photos with a statement indicating the United States is aiding the Islamic State or ISIS.
Photos allegedly revealing the United States aiding IS militants were posted by the MOD through Twitter. They also made a statement that the United States was providing safe passage for the terrorists to advance America's influence throughout the Middle East.
The translated tweet reads, "#RusMod shows irrefutable evidence that US are actually covering ISIS combat units to recover their combat capabilities, redeploy, and use them to promote the American interests in the Middle East."
Russia also added pictures of mobile IS assets in the Abu Kamal town in Eastern Syria. Abu Kamal was recently recaptured by Daesh. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, relentless clashes between Daesh and regime forces returned to the town.
However, it has been revealed that the photos originated from a video game. One of the images was confirmed to have come from the war game "AC-130 Gunship Simulator: Special Ops Squadron," developed by an independent video game company called Byte Conveyor Studios. Its gameplay is inspired by the Vietnam War and allows players to provide air support as well as navigation to ground troops.
Russia already addressed the issue and indicated that they are investigating the matter.
There are still no comments from the President of the United States, Donald Trump. Trump recently returned to the White House after his trip around Asia and participation in the 31st ASEAN Summit in the Philippines.
In 2016, upon meeting renowned filmmaker Oliver Stone, Russian President Vladimir Putin showed Stone a video he claimed to be footage of Russia's attack against ISIS in Syria. However, the video footage was confirmed to show American troops clashing against the Taliban in Afghanistan.
Putin also had no comment about the visual proof issue. Russia's president has his hands full with allegations thrown against him about election meddling. The Russian president is being accused of tampering with the election and deploying cyber espionage.
