A video circulating the Internet purports to show the Iran attack on US airbases in Iraq that occurred in January 2020 in response to the US missile strike on General Qasem Soleimani.
Many instances of the video, including a widely shared YouTube video, use the title Iran Attack US Airbase in Iraq! #WorldWar3 #IranMissileStrikes. The most popular instance of the video is below, uploaded the a channel called The Scoop.
While the majority of the footage appears to be likely derived from the January 2020 attack on coalition bases in Iraq, at least one piece of footage from the video – arguably the most dramatic part – is a number of years old and has nothing to do with the attack. The YouTube channel that uploaded the video, The Scoop, has posted other fake videos on its channel, including video game footage purporting to show the strike on Qasem Soleimani, which we debunked here.
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The video begins with footage that was released by FarsNews Agency on Iranian TV in January 2020, purportedly of the January 2020 missile attacks. It shows several missiles launching into the air. The footage has also been shared by most media outlets.
However, at the 30 second mark, the video then cuts to dozens of missiles being launched in quick succession (screenshot below.) However this is NOT from the January 2020 missile attacks, since the exact footage can be found on a December 2018 YouTube video and on Military.com claiming to show Qatar using a MLRS (Multiple Launch Rocket System.)
Early reports suggest around a dozen missiles were fired in total during the attack, while this part of the video clearly shows many more being fired.
The final part of the video, which is likely to be genuine, then cuts to cellphone footage of missiles landing taken by what is suspected to be Iraqi security forces on the ground near the Ain al-Asad base. Such footage has also been shared by various media outlets. The video finishes with a genuine ABC News report announcing the strikes.
In summary, while most of the footage is suspected to be genuine, at least one part of it has nothing to do with the attacks, and we rank this video as “mixture”.