Video shows US strikes on Baghdad in 2003, not 'Hamas attack on Israel in 2023'
- This article is more than one year old.
- Published on October 20, 2023 at 11:24
- Updated on October 20, 2023 at 14:00
- 4 min read
- By AFP Indonesia
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"5,000 Hamas (Palestinian) rockets attack Israel," reads Indonesian-language text in a video posted to TikTok on October 9.
The one-minute clip shows huge explosions lighting up the night in a built-up area and has been viewed more than 7.1 million times.
It also features a 2009 song titled "We Will Not Go Down (Song for Gaza)" by Syrian-American recording artist Michael Heart (archived link).
The video was posted after Palestinian militant group Hamas launched a surprise onslaught on October 7, 2023, in which they stormed across the border into southern Israel and shot, stabbed or burnt to death more than 1,400 people, mostly civilians, according to Israeli officials.
Hamas said they fired around 5,000 rockets in the early morning assault -- the deadliest attack on Israel since its creation in 1948.
Israel has responded by raining air and artillery strikes on Gaza. The Hamas-run health ministry in the crowded Palestinian enclave says more than 3,785 Palestinians have been killed in the bombing. More than one million people have been displaced, according to the United Nations.
Similar videos falsely claiming to show the rocket strikes on Israel have been posted elsewhere on TikTok, including here, here, and here, as well as Instagram here -- garnering a total of more than 90,000 views.
However, the footage is unrelated to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It shows a US bombing campaign against Iraq 20 years ago that was widely broadcast by major news networks at the time.
'Shock and awe'
A reverse image search on Google by AFP led to a similar video published by Turkish media outlet OdaTV in October 2022 (archived link).
The clip appears in a text article on US policy towards the Ukraine war that casts parallels with the Iraq conflict two decades ago.
This footage on OdaTV bears many similarities to the false TikTok post.
Below are two screenshot comparisons between the video in the false post (left) and the genuine footage from OdaTV (right) showing the same frames:
A social media post pictured in the OdaTV article refers to the US bombardment of Baghdad in 2003 as "Operation Shock and Awe".
This term was coined by Washington to describe its bombing campaign that year, which lit up the skies and destroyed swathes of Iraq as the United States and its allies invaded.
Scenes of the 2003 aerial assault were widely disseminated by the world's media.
A search on YouTube using the keywords "Operation Shock and Awe" found a video published by Britain's ITN news network that shows Baghdad being bombed on March 21, 2003 (archived link).
One scene at the 30-second mark in the false video shows a building being pounded. It also appears in the ITN footage at the 1:25 mark. The ITN reporter says the building was a presidential palace of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, who was deposed in the US-led invasion. It can be seen in the OdaTV film as well.
Below is a screenshot comparison between the video in the false post (left) and the ITN report (right):
CNN also broadcast clips of the bombing (archived link).
Below is a screenshot comparison between the video in the false post (left) and the CNN video (right):
Other buildings seen in the ITN, CNN, and OdaTV videos match those in the false video. After 30 seconds in the ITN report a huge explosion takes place near a tall structure with a clock on its exterior. This building can be seen at the 56-second mark in the false video.
It is a major landmark in the Iraqi capital, the Baghdad Clock. It can easily be found on Google Maps (archived link).
Below is a screenshot comparison between the clock as seen in the false video (left) and a photo of the building from Google Maps (right):
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