Viral video shows strikes on Yemen, not attack on U.S. airbase

Iran has issued counterstrikes to Israeli and U.S. military bases since the beginning of the Iran war. But unrelated video footage is being mischaracterized as showing those attacks. 

A Feb. 28 X post  said the footage of a large, fiery explosion was recorded at a U.S. air base in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The video and caption spread across X and other platforms, including TikTok and Instagram. 

But the video is neither recent, nor from Saudi Arabia. 

Two Arabic news reports from July 2024 show identical or near identical footage of Israeli strikes on the Yemeni port of Hodeidah. 

The port strike was in response to a drone strike in Tel Aviv carried out by Houthi, an Iran-backed military group in Yemen, that killed at least one person. The port was used to deliver Iranian arms to Yemen. 

It's true that Iranian drones recently hit a U.S. embassy in Riyadh, according to a March 3 Associated Press report, but there's no public footage of that attack. The Saudi Arabia Defense Ministry also told AP that it had intercepted several other drones fired into the area early that morning. 

We rate claims the video of the Yemeni port bombing shows a U.S. air base in Riyadh being destroyed by Iran False. 

Editor's note: Google Translate was used to translate video captions and websites into English.