Claim: Footage aired during Adil Shahzeb’s show shows Iran’s missile and drone attack on Israel.
Fact: The footage used is not connected to Iran’s 13 April attacks on Israel. The video is from the Turkish-Syria war in Idlib in 2020 when the conflict reached its peak.
On 15 April, Adil Shahzeb’s show aired misleading footage purportedly showing moments when Iran attacked Israel the night before with missiles and drones.
The show aired the misleading footage nine times in 38 minutes.
In the aftermath of Iran’s attack on Israel on 13 April 2024, rampant misinformation circulated on social media, some of which was debunked by Soch Fact Check here, here, and here.
The footage in question was also shared by X user, purportedly showing Iran’s attack on Israel.
“IRAN attacks ISRAEL. Iranian drones & missiles have arrived in Israel, firing at specific targets in Tel Aviv. If USA directly attacks IRAN, Russia and China will declare support for Iran,” said the caption of the post alongside the video.
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check debunked the footage used by Adil Shahzeb’s show’s episode “Is Iran-Israel Tension a Threat To The Region?” when it was misleadingly linked to the Israel-Hamas war in October 2023. “Old video from 2020 shared as Hamas strike on Tel Aviv’s airport,” a fact-check investigated the claim that apparently showed the Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas firing rockets at an airport in Tel Aviv. We found the footage originated in Idlib in 2020.
The Turkey military operation in Idlib Governorate in Syria, bordering the former, dates back to 2017 when Turkish forces set up a sixth observational post in Idlib. The rebels fighting the Bashar al-Assad regime are Turkey-backed. Russia has supported Syrian forces throughout.
A ceasefire agreement was reached between Russia-backed Syrian forces and Turkey in 2018, but it eventually failed.
When Bashar al-Assad’s forces advanced to reclaim the last rebel-held territory, at least “half-million people” fled the region. In February 2020, the conflict reached its peak, when Syrian forces killed 33 Turkish soldiers, and the latter retaliated by killing 309 Syrian soldiers in Idlib.
Turkey and Russia agreed to another ceasefire in the region fearing escalation in March 2020. However, instances of bombing were reported after the agreed ceasefire.
Soch Fact Check also found the video was shared on various social media platforms at the time.
A YouTube video from 2 February 2020, which matches the keyframes of the footage aired during Adil Shahzeb’s show, depicts a flurry of rockets emerging from behind the trees. According to the caption translated from Russian, the video apparently shows, ”Ground-to-ground missiles destroy the Turkish al-Qaeda militia West of Aleppo,” a Syrian city.
Al-Hadath’s Facebook channel posted a similar video on 2 February 2020 with a caption [translated from Arabic]: “#Turkey publishes a video of shells being fired against #Syrian_regime forces in #Idlib.”
Soch Fact Check thus concludes the footage does not show drones and missiles fired by Iran on the night of 13 April. The video surfaced at the peak of the Turkish-Syria war in Idlib in 2020, and is not connected to the Israel-Hamas war or the Iran-Israel conflict in April 2024.
Virality
The episode aired On Dawn News TV’s YouTube channel with 1.49 million followers, shared the footage nine times at timestamps 19:47, 22:17, 23:21, 24:04, 24:22, 24:37, 33:32, 33:55, 35:34.
The footage was also linked to the Iran-Israel escalation on X here, and garnered at least 713,000 views.
It was shared on YouTube with a similar claim here.
Conclusion: The footage aired during an episode of ‘Live with Adil Shahzeb’ is not from the Iran-Israel conflict in April. The misleading footage dates back to 2020, when the Turkish-Syria war reached its peak.
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Background image in cover photo: Adil Shahzeb’s Facebook
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