Old California flyover footage misrepresented as Middle East deployment
- Published on April 10, 2026 at 22:46
- 3 min read
- By Bill MCCARTHY, AFP USA
A video is spreading across X in posts claiming it captures the United States surging troops to the Middle East amid a two-week ceasefire with Iran. But the clip is unrelated to the war; filmed in 2023, it shows a homecoming flyover conducted at a US Marine Corps air base in the state of California.
"BREAKING: OVER 50,000 TROOPS AND 40% OF AMERICA'S NAVY LAND NEAR IRAN. THIS WILL BECOME A WORLD WAR SOON," says an April 9, 2026 post on X sharing the roughly one-minute video.
Similar posts in multiple languages -- including French, Arabic and Hindi -- pinballed across the platform, amplified by prominent accounts AFP has previously fact-checked for spreading war-related misinformation, such as "@GBX_Press" and Sulaiman Ahmed.
Many posts cited Reuters reporting that said the United States has more than 50,000 troops in the Middle East and was continuing to move Marines to the region -- a number corroborated by US media (archived here and here).
The clip comes as Pakistan prepares to host talks between Iran and the United States in a bid to turn a fragile ceasefire into a lasting end to a war that has rocked the Gulf. Donald Trump announced April 7 that he had agreed to suspend bombing of Iran for two weeks if Tehran reopened the Strait of Hormuz, a pause in fighting reached barely an hour before the US president's deadline to obliterate the Islamic republic was set to expire.
But the footage circulating online is unrelated to the ceasefire with Iran -- or any reported military buildup.
Reverse image searches surfaced the same footage on the Pentagon's Defense Visual Information Distribution Service (DVIDS) website, where it is dated June 6, 2023 and labeled as b-roll of a homecoming flyover at a US Marine Corps air base in California (archived here).
"U.S. Marine Corps aircraft with the Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron (VMM) 362 (Reinforced), Marine Aircraft Group 16, 3rd Marine Air Wing conducted a fly over on Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, June 6, 2023," the description reads.
It adds that the unit had been "deployed aboard the Makin Island Amphibious Ready Group to the U.S. 7th Fleet Area of Operations to enhance interoperability with Allies and partners and serve as a ready-response force to defend peace and maintain stability in the Indo-Pacific region."
A second DVIDS video shows additional footage of the flyover, as well as the troops greeting family and friends on arrival (archived here). The DVIDS website also includes photos of the event (archived here).
Local news also broadcast video of the aircraft over San Diego near the Miramar air station.
AFP has previously debunked other misinformation about the war in the Middle East here.
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