No doubt in my mind our guys where held back.
Our forces had high value targets like depots and training camps taken off the target list because we might have hurt ISIS “dependents.”
Needless to say, ISIS probably followed up by surrounding other targets with such “dependents.”
Since the Sov, er, Russkis do not care about such things, they probably went ahead an bombed heck out the target AND dependents. Good for them. I would have considered the dependents “bonus points.”