Quite literally yes there is, assad has tried to minimize casualties as has russia and turkey and iran, groups like hts and their former groups sought to maximise civilian casualties as a media war rather than a conventional war, they even attack civilian and military positions knowing no sane govt will stand idly by and let it happen, then try and use the media to paint the ones retaliating as starting the aggression and painting the ones who started the aggression as angels being slaughtered for no reason conveniently leaving out what hts has done.
Russia also has the biggest anti terrorist stance of any govt on earth, they denounce terrorism everywhere, and make no exceptions which they have held that stance since the whole school hostage situation in which many died from chechnyan terrorists.
Edit: russia screwed this up badly but it shows where their strong anti terrorist logic comes from
Beslan school siege - Wikipedia