Old footage from US war with Iraq falsely linked to Iran conflict
- Published on March 4, 2026 at 05:34
- 2 min read
- By AFP Indonesia
Iran vowed to launch the "most ferocious" operation in history against Israel and the United States after the allies' ongoing strikes that killed its supreme leader, but a video of explosions in a city shared with claims it shows Tehran's retaliation is old. It actually depicts the US' "shock and awe" bombing campaign against Iraq in March 2003.
"Iranian ballistic missiles rain down on Israel," reads part of the Indonesian-language caption of a TikTok video shared on March 1, 2026.
"Iran is reported to have launched dozens of ballistic missiles toward Israel in retaliation for a previous joint Israeli-American strike that targeted facilities in Tehran."
The video, which shows explosions in a city at night, also circulated with the same claim in various languages as Iran retaliated against a joint attack by the United States and Israel on February 28, 2026 that killed its supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (archived link).
US President Donald Trump said the United States attack was meeting its goals ahead of schedule but warned the war could go "far longer" than his initial estimates of about a month (archived link).
He also for the first time laid out objectives -- destroying Iran's missiles, navy and nuclear programme, and stopping its support for armed groups across the region -- which notably did not include toppling the Islamic republic.
Meanwhile, Iran has responded by unleashing missiles and drones across Gulf states including Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Dubai, while threatening explicitly to drive up global energy costs.
While Iranian missile barrages have targeted Israel, the circulating video does not show strikes launched by Tehran (archived link). The footage in fact shows the bombardment of Iraq's capital Baghdad by the United States in 2003.
A reverse image search on Google using keyframes from the falsely shared video led to the same video published by Turkish media outlet OdaTV in October 2022 (archived link).
The report was about internet users sharing the video of Washington's "shock and awe" campaign that saw the US rain bombs on Baghdad on March 21, 2003, in response to former US president Joe Biden's criticism of Russia's war in Ukraine (archived link).
The 2003 campaign was part of the United States' war against Iraq over claims that Saddam Hussein's regime illegally possessed weapons of mass destruction, though none were ever found.
Similar footage of the 2003 strikes in Iraq was published by other media outlets including US broadcaster CNN and Britain's ITN (archived here and here).
A clock tower seen at the 56-second mark of the falsely shared video also corresponds to the Baghdad clock, a major landmark in Iraq's capital (archived link).
The video has repeatedly been falsely linked to subsequent conflicts in the region.
AFP has also debunked other misinformation stemming from the war in the Middle East.
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