Footage from Kyiv mislabeled as Iranian drone strike in Bahrain
- Published on March 17, 2026 at 18:09
- 2 min read
- By Sofia BARRAGAN, AFP Argentina
- Translation and adaptation Bill MCCARTHY, AFP USA
At least 13 American service members have died since US-Israeli strikes on Iran in late February 2026 sent the Middle East spiraling into war, but a video claimed online to show a drone hitting a hotel housing US officers in Bahrain is misrepresented. The footage corresponds to a Russian attack on a residential building in Kyiv in January.
"A direct hit by Iranian drone on a hotel building housing US officers in Bahrain," says a March 9, 2026 post on X.
Similar posts shared the video of a drone triggering an explosion in a high-rise building across Facebook and Instagram -- and spread in several languages, including Arabic and Spanish.
The posts come as Iran has fired retaliatory attacks against Israel and US assets in the Middle East, unleashing chaos on usually peaceful areas around the Gulf.
The US military said March 13 that a refueling aircraft crash in western Iraq killed six crew members, bringing the number of US troops killed in operations against Iran to at least 13.
AFP journalists have reported explosions Bahrain's capital of Manama, where the US embassy on March 1 urged citizens to steer clear of hotels after an attack hit the Crowne Plaza. The Washington Post reported that a State Department cable said two US defense personnel were injured in one strike on a hotel.
But the clip circulating online of a blast at a high-rise is unrelated.
Reverse image searches traced the footage to a video the Ukrainian YouTube channel "@KASHTANnews" uploaded January 9 (archived here). The video's description reads: "Jan 9, 2026, Kyiv. We are publishing footage of a Russian drone striking a residential building."
The channel's watermark flashes throughout the video.
The same footage appears in Ukrainian news coverage, which placed the incident in the Pozniaky neighborhood of Ukraine.
У мережу виклали один із найжахливіших моментів російської терористичної атаки на Київ у ніч на 9 січня - удар дрона по житловій багатоповерхівці на Позняках pic.twitter.com/91xJC0xUNS
— ГЛАВКОМ (@GLAVCOM_UA) January 9, 2026
AFP geolocated the video using Google Street View, further confirming the location (archived here).
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said at the time that a "massive" Russian night-time attack on Ukraine damaged 20 residential buildings in Kyiv and its suburbs, as well as Qatar's embassy. AFP journalists captured photos and footage of the damage.
AFP has fact-checked other misinformation about the Middle East war here.
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