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| - Fact Check: This video DOES NOT show British oil tanker attacked by Houthi missile!
India Today Fact Check found that the video shows a goods carrier that caught fire near Oman — official statements have no mention of a terrorist attack.
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India Today Fact Check
This video is from Oman's territorial waters and has nothing to do with the Houthis or a British oil tanker.
Amid the Israel-Hamas war, Houthi militants from Yemen have launched more than 100 attacks against commercial vessels in the Red Sea, affecting traffic there. A video now going viral shows a vessel burning in the middle of a sea. Allegedly, a British oil tanker was attacked by the Yemeni rebel forces.
"Breaking: British oil tanker ablaze off the coast of Hodeidah, Yemen, following a missile strike! The situation is rapidly developing in the maritime region," read one post on X.
On Facebook, one such post read: "Houthis attack a British oil tanker near Hodeidah." The archived version of a similar post can be seen here.
India Today Fact Check found that the video does not show a British oil carrier and has nothing to do with Houthis.
Our Probe
Reverse-searching keyframes from the viral video led us to a news report from the Times Of Oman published on December 23, 2023. This report contained a screenshot from the viral video.
Per the report, a ship caught fire in the Sultanate of Oman's territorial waters when it was en route to the Republic of Somalia with 11 Indian citizens on board. Subsequent searches yielded another similar news report published by the Arabian Daily the next day.
Both reports confirm that the vessel, with 11 Indian nationals on board, caught fire in Oman's territorial waters. The crew, however, was promptly rescued. Notably, neither report mentioned Houthis, any kind of terrorist attack, or the involvement of a British oil tanker.
Both reports quoted the Oman police. Through a keyword search, we came across the original video shared by the official X account of the Oman Police.
The Arabic statement roughly translates to: "A boat burned in the territorial waters of the Sultanate of Oman off the coast of the Hasik Niyabat in the Dhofar Governorate, loaded with a group of goods heading to the Republic of Somalia. Its crew, consisting of 11 people of Indian nationality, was evacuated by citizens, all of whom were in good health, with one of them sustaining a minor injury and being transported to receive the necessary treatment."
Therefore, it is clear that an unrelated video of a fire accident on a ship in the territorial waters of Oman was falsely shared as a purported Houthi aggression.
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