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| - Fact Check: 18-year-old video from Iraq resurfaces as Russia-Ukraine combat
A video of army action inside a shrine has gone viral, with the claim that it shows the Russian army confronting its Ukrainian counterpart. India Today Anti-Fake News War Room ( AFWA) has found the video to be an old one from Iraq.
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India Today Fact Check
This is an eighteen-year-old video from Iraq. The viral video shows the US and Iraqi troops recapturing the holy Al-Askari shrine in Iraq’s Samarra in 2004.
Amid the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine, a video of army action inside a shrine has gone viral with the claim that it showed the Russian army confronting its Ukrainian counterpart.
Several Facebook users shared this viral video with captions like, “#russianarmy and #ukrinearmy fresh fighting”
The India Today Anti-Fake News War Room ( AFWA) found that this is an eighteen-year-old video from Iraq. The viral video shows the US and Iraqi troops recapturing the holy Al-Askari shrine in Iraq’s Samarra in 2004.
The viral posts are archived here and here.
AFWA probe
With the help of InVID and reverse image search, we have found the longer version of a viral video on several YouTube channels. The title of one of these YouTube videos said, “Attack on the Golden Mosque / Al-Askari Mosque 2004”.
A verified YouTube channel named “ FUNKER530 - Veteran Community & Combat Footage” uploaded a video of the entire army operation in August 2020. At the 1.37 minute mark in this YouTube video, one can see the viral clip.
The video titled, “Historical US Special Forces Raid On Golden Mosque,” mentions in the description: “The raid on the Golden Mosque took place on October 1, 2004, as part of the Battle for Samarra, also known as Operation Baton Rouge.”
The Golden Mosque refers to the Imam Al-Askari shrine in Samarra, which is considered to be one of the holiest places in Iraq for Shia Muslims.
Comparing the screenshot of this mosque with the photograph of the “Al-Askari” shrine as taken by AFP in 2004, we could confirm that the shrine in the viral video was indeed Al-Askari in Samarra, Iraq.
The caption of the aforementioned AFP photo said, “A US Humvee patrols past the golden mosque of Imam Hassan al-Askari in Samarra, 02 October 2004. The situation in this city was largely under control today except for some pockets of resistance, the Iraqi government said, a day after a fierce US-Iraqi offensive to retake the city from Sunni Arab insurgents.”
The joint operation carried out by the US and Iraqi troops in the Al-Askari mosque in 2004 was reported by several international media outlets.
The viral footage had earlier surfaced on social media with the false claim that this was a military action by the Israeli army on a mosque in Palestine, which was debunked by AFP Fact Check in 2021.
Now the same video has resurfaced with a different claim, falsely linking it to the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
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