The Syrian regime has been ridiculed for making outlandish claims that the opposition is using AI to show battlefield successes, following the rebel capture of Hama on Thursday.
Minister of Defence General Ali Mahmoud Abbas issued a televised statement following the rebel capture, saying the army withdrawal was a "tactical measure" and that regime forces was in the vicinity of Hama.
Abbas added that rebels were "issuing faked statements or orders in the name of the General Command of the Army and Armed Forces or publishing audio recordings or video clips that have been fabricated using artificial intelligence".
He described such actions as a "disinformation campaign" and called on people to rely on information provided by official channels.
The statement came after rebel forces led by hardline Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham stormed the city of Hama following days of fierce battles in the surrounding countryside and the collapse of regime forces in the north.
As well as the regime attempting to do damage control following the loss of the city, pro-regime social media accounts also spent Thursday night writing fabricated stories of a victorious regime counterattack.
The well-known pro-regime account Partisan Girl posted old videos on X of regime paratroopers conducting exercises in 2023 saying that they were dropping behind rebel lines in Hama.
Another X account claimed that regime armour was surrounding the rebel-held city in a counterattack, as well as spreading the paratrooper claim.
The rebels have continued to hold Hama however, and are now outside the Syrian city of Homs, with rebel uprisings also being reported in the southern Syrian regions of Daraa and Suwieda.