Decade-old video shows Sharjah residential tower fire, not Iranian attack on CIA facility
- Published on March 4, 2026 at 05:27
- 2 min read
- By AFP Middle East & North Africa
- Translation and adaptation Rasheek MUJIB, AFP Bangladesh
Iran has launched missile and drone strikes across the Middle East in retaliation for joint Israeli-US attacks on the Islamic republic, but footage of a burning high-rise building circulating on social media is not the "CIA headquarters in Dubai". The video previously circulated in October 2015 and shows a building fire in Sharjah, a major port city in the United Arab Emirates.
"An Iranian drone strike targeted a site identified as a CIA headquarters in Dubai," reads the caption of an Instagram video published on March 2, 2026.
The video, which was viewed more than 10,300 times, shows thick smoke billowing from a skyscraper. Text above the video repeats the claim it shows an Iranian drone strike on the alleged headquarters of the US Central Intelligence Agency in Dubai.
The same footage spread elsewhere on social media alongside similar claims in India, Pakistan and Nigeria as Iran responded to a massive joint US-Israeli attack on the Islamic republic that killed its supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (archived link).
Tehran retaliated with missile and drone strikes targeting Israel and Middle Eastern countries that host US bases (archived link).
Authorities said explosions rocked Dubai's Palm Jumeirah man-made island and drone debris caused a fire at the Burj Al Arab ultra-luxury hotel as waves of Iranian missiles targeted the United Arab Emirates on February 28 (archived link).
The UAE Ministry of Defense reported that three people have been killed since February 28, adding they were of Pakistani, Nepalese and Bangladeshi nationality (archived link).
A drone strike caused a fire by the US consulate in Dubai late on March 3, as Iran intesified attacks on American diplomatic missions in the Gulf, but there have been no official reports of a CIA facility in the city targeted by Iranian drones (archived link).
The CIA's headquarters are in Langley, in the US state of Virginia (archived link).
A reverse image search on Google using keyframes from the falsely shared video found it corresponds to footage shared on YouTube from more than a decade ago (archived link).
The Arabic-language title of the YouTube video, posted on October 20, 2015, reads, "A large fire in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates".
Subsequent keyword searches found multiple similar videos published by local and foreign media in early October 2015 (archived here and here).
They state that a fire broke out in a 30-storey residential tower in Sharjah and was brought under control with no casualties reported (archived here and here).
The circulating video corresponds to Google Street View imagery of the tower, taken in March 2015 (archived link).
AFP has debunked other misinformation stemming from the war in the Middle East.
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