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| - Fact Check: Old video from Syrian civil war shared as Taliban capturing Kabul presidential palace
A video showing men firing guns in the air and shouting "Allahu Akbar" is circulating on social media as visuals of the Taliban taking control of the Presidential palace in Kabul.
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India Today Fact Check
Though the Taliban has taken control of the Presidential palace in Kabul, this video is from Syria and at least six years old. Syrian rebels had captured the city of Idlib in a major offensive against the Bashar al-Assad government.
Several disturbing visuals of bodies lying on the streets and people trying to flee are coming in from Afghanistan after Taliban took over the country. Former Afghan President Ashraf Ghani fled as the Islamist militia took over the Presidential Palace and Parliament.
Amid this, a video showing men firing guns in the air and shouting "Allahu Akbar" is circulating on social media as visuals of the Taliban taking control of the Presidential palace in Kabul.
The caption with one such video reads, "Very good. With the Taliban in control of the Presidential Palace in Kabul and the US Ambassador fleeing to the airport, Taliban have won the war..."
The archived versions of the post can be seen here.
India Today Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA) has found the claim along with the video to be misleading. Though the Taliban has taken control of the Presidential palace in Kabul, this video is from Syria and at least six years old.
AFWA probe
Upon closely observing the viral video, we found that the flag in it is of Syria and not Afghanistan.
We also found a portrait of former Syrian President Hafez al-Assad on a wall in the video.
What is the video about?
After getting a clue that the incident might be from Syria, we did a reverse search of keyframes in the video and found a portion from the same video carried in an Al Jazeera report from March 29, 2015. According to the report, the video shows rebel groups, including an Al-Qaeda affiliate, capturing Syria's northwestern city of Idlib.
A similar video was also uploaded on Facebook on April 1, 2015, as from Idlib.
Geolocating the video
AFWA reached out to Nick Waters, a Bellingcat expert based out of Syria. Bellingcat is an investigative journalism website that specialises in fact-checking and open-source intelligence.
Nick confirmed to us that the video is from Syria and was taken at the central square of Idlib.
Zouhir Al-Shimale, another journalist from Syria, also confirmed that the video is from Idlib, and the location is known as "The Seven Rivers".
We then searched for "The Seven Rivers" and found its exact location on Google Map. A comparison between a screenshot from the viral video and the image of the location on Google Map can be seen below.
Multiple elements seen in the viral video such as the flagpole, the fountain, yellow and blue tiles around it and buildings opposite it can be seen on Google Maps. A few more recent images of the same location from Google Maps can be seen below.
An outside view of the presidential palace in Kabul can be seen below.
Hence, it is clear that the video in question is from Syria and at least six years old. It has nothing to do with the ongoing chaos in Afghanistan.
(Illustration by Manjeet Shah)
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