Air strikes against Syrian opposition factions increased by 150 percent since Russia’s intervention in the crisis in 2015, said a report by IHS Janes Terrorism and Insurgency Center (JTIC) on Tuesday. This allowed the Syrian regime to triple the territory under its control. It found that the regime had increased the area under its control from 16 percent of the country in September 2015 to 47 percent in March 2018. The analysis also found that just 14 percent of the strikes were against the ISIS group. Russian intervention not only ensured the survival of Bashar Assads regime, it changed the course of the war. "Russian intervention has provided the Syrian regime with the space and time to concentrate forces at key strategic areas and use overwhelming force to recapture opposition-held territory," said Matthew Henman, head of JTIC at IHS Markit. "JTICs recorded data underlines the key role airstrikes have played in this strategy, with opposition forces largely unable to defend against, let alone replicate, the threat posed by airpower." IHS Janes said regime forces have successfully recaptured large urban centers such as Aleppo and Homs, as well as securing the border with Lebanon and containing the threat from extremist rebels in Idlib. Between September 2015 and March 2018, the number of Russian and Syrian strikes rose to 6,833 from 2,735. Of these strikes, 960 were targeted ISIS -- around 14 percent -- but the majority were against other rebel groups, the report found. The strikes were "particularly concentrated in areas where ISIS had little or no operational presence," it said.