Iraq
Sunday 20 May 2018
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Russian Embassy in the UK
“US training a “New Syrian Army” near refugee camp in Al-Hasakah to fight the government, core fighters of the group are ISIS terrorists allowed to leave Raqqa (as BBC has revealed)”
Read more...The New Syrian Army has a well-established record of fighting against the Islamic State. There is no evidence to suggest that the U.S. is deliberately arming or training ISIS fighters. -
Russian Defense Ministry
“Closing a 55 kilometer zone around the U.S. base in At Tanf, the U.S. group established an area in which more than 50,000 people, according to various estimates, are isolated. This has created an unprecedented case of protracted blocking of humanitarian assistance to needy people. In the refugee camp, the opportunity to obtain sufficient food and appropriate medical care is absent, and children cannot go to school.”
Read more...Documents obtained by Polygraph.info, as well as Russian media reports, show that the U.S. is not solely responsible for the crisis in the Rukban refugee camp. In fact, the American side has repeatedly offered assistance in delivering aid. There are strong indicators that, the U.S. military in Syria, while being portrayed as a victimizer by the Russian Defense Ministry, is actually the target of a massive coordinated media campaign in Russia. -
Defense Ministry
Russian Federation
“#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.
Read more...The original social media post contained an image from the video game AC-130 Gunship Simulator. Other photos came from airstrikes in Iraq from last year. -
Frants Klintsevich
First deputy chairman of the defense and security committee of the Russian Federation Council
“The U.S. has a direct interest in destabilizing the situation in Central Asia, including by using IS… The Americans believe that this will allow them to unravel the situation in Russia.”
Read more...The U.S. is fighting against Islamic State, not using it. Washington is also cooperating with Central Asian states to enhance security for the region -- including Russia -- despite Moscow’s objection to such security cooperation and its destabilizing military actions along its own periphery. -
TASS
Russian state news agency
“Iranian television on Thursday distributed photographs confirming the death of the head of the Islamic State terrorist group, Abu Baqr al-Baghdadi.”
Read more...Russia’s state news agency TASS reported that Iranian TV had published photographic proof that Islamic State leader Abu Baqr al-Baghdadi was killed in a Russian airstrike in May. In fact, the same pictures had been circulating around the Internet since 2014. -
Vladimir Putin
President, Russia
“We are aware of the accusations of the use of chemical weapons. There is no proof whatsoever! We offered right after it happened to conduct an inspection exactly at the airport from where President Assad’s aircraft allegedly took off with chemical weapons. They refused – nobody wants that. …because they were afraid that this falsification would be exposed – it’s as simple as that. Regarding the people who were killed or suffered from the use of weapons, including chemical weapons – that is false information.”
Read more...Vladimir Putin said the United States and its allies refused to investigate chemical attacks that took place in Syria in April because they feared the probe would reveal that the attacks were “falsified” and there was no proof the regime of Bashar al-Assad possesses and has used chemical weapons. Putin also claimed that reports about the victims of such attacks is “false information.” However, France, Turkey and the Organization for Prohibition of Chemical Weapons have each conducted an independent investigation and produced detailed reports showing the Assad regime carried out sarin gas attacks. -
Ramzan Kadyrov
Head of the Chechen Republic
There are (Chechens fighting for the Islamic State), but they are a small drop in the sea compared to hundreds of thousands of terrorists who came from America, Asia, Europe, Africa, Australia.”
Read more...The leader of Chechnya attempted to downplay the role of Chechen fighters in IS by inferring that they are a small segment when compared to other foreign fighters in IS. But a Polygraph.info fact check shows Chechen numbers in IS are not small.