Fake videos on social media about strikes against Syria

Several fake videos are making the rounds on social media allegedly showing Saturday morning’s air strikes on Syria.

Syria strikes
Some of the videos allegedly showing the air strikes were shared by large media organisations [Hassan Ammar/AP Photo]

Following US, French and British air strikes on three Syrian targets on Saturday, a lot of pictures and videos are being shared on social media allegedly showing the attacks.

However, as with other events such as mass shootings or other major events, a lot of misinformation is being circulated, including from other media, about Saturday’s attacks.

Here are some of the videos and pictures being shared extensively on both Twitter and Facebook that are not actually from last night’s events. 

Not Syria but Ukraine

The most widely shared video, including by large media corporations such as NBC News, PressTV and Telemundo, purportedly shows several missiles hitting targets in Syria.

The video, however, was not shot during Saturday’s air strikes in Syria, but in Ukraine. The footage was first uploaded in February 2015, and an artillery barrage in the city of Luhansk.

Link to the original video.

Right location but wrong date

Another video making the rounds allegedly shows the early-morning air strike on the Jamraya Research Centre in Damascus.

The video does show the correct location, but the video was shot in January 2013, when a similar attack, attributed to Israel, was carried out on the facility.

https://twitter.com/Sabrnews/status/984975343663697922?ref_src=twsrc^tfw

Link to the original video.

Saudi Arabian air defence, not Syria 

According to Russia and Syria, the Syrian military used its air defence system to take down several missiles fired by the US, France and the UK.

A video on Twitter claims to show Syrian air defence firing and taking down missiles.

However, the footage is actually from Saudi Arabian missile defence systems taking down rockets fired by the Houthi rebels in Yemen.

The original video was posted three weeks ago by news agency Al-Arabiya, which claims it got the video from unnamed sources.

Houthi depot explosion

A different video related to the war in Yemen is being used in claims showing Saturday’s attacks.

The video, which shows a massive explosion near a city, does not show any of Saturday’s US, French and British air strikes.

The video is originally from 2015 and allegedly shows an explosion in Yemen after air strikes by the Saudi-led coalition hit a weapons depot controlled by the Houthi rebels.

Link to the original video.

This explosion was also captured from a different angle, shown here.

US invasion of Iraq, not Syria

Pictures that purportedly show Saturday’s air strike in Syria are also being shared.

Among them is this picture, which is originally from the 2003 US invasion of Iraq. It is a screengrab from a video showing air strikes on Saddam Hussein’s palace in the Iraqi capital Baghdad.

https://twitter.com/ArainSohail94/status/985068039468191744?ref_src=twsrc^tfw

Link to the video screengrab was taken from.

Source: Al Jazeera