Ah I forgot the glowies were boosting them. I remember when the Taliban were tweeting after taking over Afghanistan they started asking why they never seemed to attack Israel but instead every other Islamic country on earth.
I never really researched the Syria stuff as much, I just know a few things friends told me about how much sus shit was going on there and that a lot of the same shit is going on in Ukraine. I wasn't around this sphere online back then.
Namely I'm aware of the White Helmets, the sheer amount of false flagged attacks, the use of social media as brainwashing/propaganda (think like when Israel hijacked the TV station on the gaza strip to show porn but more obvious), and how the CIA/FBI backed rebels oftentimes were ineffective or part of ISIS among other things. I'm aware there are a lot of Syria rabbit holes I'm not aware about.