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TV host confuses video game for Russian airstrikes on ISIS

Ahmed Moussa confuses video game for Russian airstrikes on ISIS

Egyptian TV host Ahmed Moussa was ridiculed by social media users after he proudly aired on his controversial show  “Ala Masouliyiti (At my own risk)” footage of what he explained to be Russia’s airstrikes on Syria. The video has later been identified as a scene from a 2010 video game release “Apache: Air Assault”. As the video played, Moussa enthusiastically commented on how the Russian missiles were very precise, wiping out everything that moved, and by that he meant ISIS fighters. He continued on praising the Russians’ strength, intelligence, and effectiveness in fighting terror showing no mercy during the combat. In addition to his praise to Russia’s “courageous” war on ISIS, Moussa urged the world to support Russia.

Moussa and his production team failed to research the source of the footage, which was originally uploaded on Youtube back in December 2010. “Apache: Air Assault” is a video game produced by Activision where the player can take part in a combat that prevents war and terror attacks that causes destruction. The voice over in the game is in English, not Russian, another detail missed by the TV show's team.

Moussa is known for his critical and disapproving standpoint regarding the American intervention in the Middle East. He also believes that the Egyptian revolution that took place in January 25, 2011 was part of an American conspiracy against former president Mubarak’s government.

A day after the scandalous episode, Moussa commented: “It is very normal to fall into such mistakes as media professionals, and I challenge any production professional to discover how this mistake occurred. This mistake showed me my enemies from my friends, and no one is without flaws.”

Although the show's name means "at my own risk/responsibility", none of the team members took responisbilty for the mistake as the director Yousef Sherbatli blamed the editor in chief Mohamed Dunia. Dunia from his part blamed Youtube's misleading title of the video, which stated it was Russia's airstrike on Syria.

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