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Satirical posts about 'lax security in Afghan airport' mislead with old photo from Yemen
- This article is more than one year old.
- Published on September 2, 2021 at 10:39
- 2 min read
- By AFP Thailand
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"Security check at the airport in Afghanistan," reads the Thai-language caption alongside this photo shared on Facebook on August 20.
The photo appears to show a man carrying a rifle being body-searched by uniformed personnel.
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The photo circulated online as the US and its allies evacuated more than one hundred thousand people from Afghanistan in just two weeks.
An identical photo was also shared alongside a similar claim here on Facebook; here and here on Twitter; and in this online forum.
Comments on the posts indicated some social media users were misled.
"Why does it look like the guy without a weapon is checking the armed guy," one wrote.
The image, however, was shared by online pages with a history of sharing satirical content -- for example here and here.
It has circulated in reports about Yemen since 2015.
A reverse image search found the original photo was published on Twitter on July 1, 2015 by CBS News journalist Amjad Tadros.
"Memories from #yemen: Houthi soldier searching a man going into a rally: Qat, daggers & machine guns allowed!" reads the Twitter post.
"I confirm that I took the photo in Sana'a Yemen at a Houthi rally back in 2015," Tadros told AFP on September 2.
Houthi refers to a rebel group in Yemen.
Memories from #yemen: Houthi soldier searching a man going into a rally: Qat, daggers & machine guns allowed! pic.twitter.com/TFevPYz9pv
— yemenfelix1 (@amtadros) July 1, 2015
Below is a screenshot comparison of the photo in the misleading posts (L) and the 2015 photo (R):
![](/sites/default/files/styles/image_in_article/public/medias/factchecking/g2/2021-09/3a175bf1a7b379a2b2d9bce72bf05f9b.jpeg?itok=dVz27VRO)
Further keyword searches found the photo corresponds to frames in this report published by CBS News on YouTube June 16, 2015.
The report was titled: "Rare look inside battle-torn Yemen"
Below is a screenshot comparison of the photo in the misleading posts (L) and a frame from the YouTube video (R) with corresponding elements circled in red by AFP:
![](/sites/default/files/styles/image_in_article/public/medias/factchecking/g2/2021-09/a280acdbb77bfa9f8c8664b50e3a8f22.jpeg?itok=U1lzLnaR)
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