Years-old Kuwait blaze falsely linked to renewed US-Iran conflict
- Published on July 27, 2026 at 09:07
- 2 min read
- By Chayanit ITTHIPONGMAETEE, AFP Thailand
As the United States and Iran resumed fighting following the collapse of a ceasefire deal in July 2026, online posts shared footage they falsely claimed showed Iranian missiles causing a massive fire on an unnamed US military base in the Gulf. In fact, the video was shared by Kuwait's fire force in a July 2020 post about a blaze in a warehouse linked to air conditioning gas canisters.
"America is finished. Iran dropped bombs on the largest military base in the Gulf," says a Facebook post written in Thai shared on July 17.
The featured 36-second clip, viewed more than 46,000 times, depicts a huge nighttime blaze, with smoke rising from a building behind a fire truck.
The video has also been misrepresented on Instagram and spread in English and Arabic posts.
Fighting over the strategic Strait of Hormuz derailed diplomatic efforts between Washington and Tehran, triggering a US air campaign and Iranian reprisals that expanded the conflict to shipping lanes, Gulf allies and military bases across the region (archived link).
Fighting has also spread to a new front.
Iran-backed Houthi rebels said they downed a Saudi drone over northwestern Yemen, after the Yemeni group claimed it attacked oil facilities in the Gulf kingdom.
The Houthis had said they struck Saudi Aramco sites in Jizan and Yanbu, after Riyadh bombed Houthi targets.
But the circulating video is unrelated to the Middle East conflict.
2020 Kuwait fire
A reverse image search on Google using keyframes led AFP to the same clip shared by the Kuwait Fire Force on its official Instagram account on July 29, 2020 (archived link).
The caption says air conditioning gas canisters caused the warehouse fire.
The fire force also published video and photos showing fire trucks tackling the blaze at the warehouse (archived here and here).
Subsequent keyword searches on Google surfaced a report from Kuwaiti newspaper Dasman News on July 29, 2020 that included the recently misrepresented video (archived link).
The Arabic-language post said explosions occurred at a warehouse in Kuwait's agricultural Sulaibiya area, caused by gas canisters used to fill air conditioning units.
Kuwait Times reported the same day that several refrigerating gas cylinders exploded during the fire, citing Kuwait's Fire and Safety Department, adding the warehouses were operating in violation of their agricultural license (archived link).
More of AFP's reporting on misinformation around the conflict in the Middle East can be found here.
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