Lighthouse Journalism found a video being widely shared on social media platforms. It was being claimed that Iran has been striking Dubai. The video featured huge flames coming out from a building. The users claimed that it was a video of Iran bombing Dubai international airport, and the event happened recently.
During the investigation we found that the video being widely shared was old and not recent and was also of an unrelated incident.
Claim:
X user Nihar Nath shared the viral video on his profile.
Other users are also sharing the same video with same claim.
Investigation:
We started the investigation by running a reverse image search on the keyframes obtained from the viral video.
Searching through visual matched we found a video posted on Instagram on August 6, 2020. The visuals were similar to that of viral video.
The caption said: A huge fire breaks out at a fruits and vegetable market in UAE Ajman on Wednesday.
This suggested that the video is from 2020 and not from Dubai Airport.
We also found similar videos posted on Facebook.
The captions stated that the videos were from ‘Ajman’.
Ajman is a city in the United Arab Emirates.
Through a Google keyword search, we found an article on Reuters website.
The report said: A large fire which broke out on Wednesday evening at a market in the emirate of Ajman in the United Arab Emirates caused no injuries or deaths and had been brought under control, the head of Ajman police said. Parts of the market which had been closed for four months due to coronavirus precautions collapsed and were completely burned, Sheikh Sultan bin Abdullah al-Nuaimi said in a statement carried by state news agency WAM.
One keyframe hinted at a board that had name of the place, ‘Salem Shopping Center’. We searched this on Google maps.
We found the exact place on Google Street View.
This confirmed that the viral video was not from Iran airstrikes on Dubai.
We found the recent video on drone strike on Dubai International Airport.
These visuals were not similar to the viral visuals.
Conclusion: The viral video being circulated with claims that it shows an Iranian attack on Dubai International Airport is actually old footage from 2020 of a fire at a market in Ajman, UAE. The claim is misleading.
