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Russian Defense Ministry’s ‘Evidence’ of U.S. Aid to ISIS Shows Video-Game Footage

“Mosul footage” is apparently from AC-130 Gunship Simulator: Special Ops Squadron.

In a sign of how lazy some propagandists can be, on Tuesday the official Russian-language Twitter account for the country’s defense ministry tweeted a selection of photos, claiming the images were irrefutable evidence that the U.S. was helping ISIS terrorists. However, one of the photos the Ministry of Defense tweeted (and later deleted) appears to be from the video game AC-130 Gunship Simulator: Special Ops Squadron, a clip of which is available on YouTube. The account also posted the photos along with a longer body of text on Facebook. Researchers from verification and citizen-journalism platform Bellingcat debunked the photo after someone else tweeted it, claiming a video was live drone-attack footage over Mosul, Iraq. “This is the best evidence the [Russian MOD] are shameless liars, they take a video game screenshot then claim it’s from a specific location and date,” Eliot Higgins from Bellingcat tweeted on Tuesday.