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REALITY CHECK: Russian bombing in Syria is actually helping ISIS

Oct 1, 2015, 20:47 IST

Russian President Vladimir Putin (R) enters a hall to attend a meeting with members of the Presidential Council for Civil Society and Human Rights at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, October 1, 2015.REUTERS/Yuri Kochetkov/Pool

On Wednesday Russia began to carry out unilateral airstrikes in Syria against what it claimed were ISIS affiliated rebels.

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In reality, the rebels that Russia targeted were some of various movements that were aligned against both the Syrian regime and the Islamic State.

By bombing these targets, Russia helps to solidify Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's increasingly precarious grip on the country while weakening the primary of enemies of ISIS ont he ground.

Syrian state media reported that Russian jets hit seven areas on Wednesday. Only one of those areas has any known presence of ISIS fighters, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The other areas are controlled either by nationalist rebels or Islamist groups, including the al Qaeda-affiliated Nusra Front, that view ISIS as a dangerous rival.

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Through targeting such rebel groups and not ISIS itself, Russia is helping ISIS by removing some of its main competitors on the ground.

The Assad regime is a "terrorism generator of epic proportion, engaging in state terrorism against its own people and inciting terrorism from its opponents," the strategic security firm The Soufan Group wrote in August.

"There is no justifying the actions of a group like the Islamic State or al-Nusra, but the Assad regime's wholesale slaughter of civilians provides the groups with radicalized supporters far faster than Assad's military can then fight them."

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