Clips show US strikes on Baghdad in 2003, not attack on Israel

As conflict raged in the Middle East, dramatic images of explosions lighting up a night sky were misrepresented online as an attack on Israel’s Tel Aviv mall. Although Tel Aviv was truly attacked, the footage actually shows the massive US military campaign of “shock and awe” against Iraq in March 2003.

“Iran, Syria, Iraq, Houthis and Lebanese Hezbollah simultaneously launch massive aerial bombardments against Israel,” read the simplified Chinese caption of a TikTok video sharing footage from October 4.

The video, which has been viewed more than 257,000 times, features a text sticker claiming it was filmed on October 3 in Israel’s Tel Aviv mall.

That day, Houthi rebels said they had carried out a drone attack on Tel Aviv, without any direct confirmation from Israeli authorities (archived link).

The Israeli army said it had intercepted “a suspicious aerial target” off central Israel overnight, without giving further details.

The Houthis are part of Iran’s “Axis of Resistance” against Israel and the United States, which also includes the Palestinian group Hamas, Hezbollah in Lebanon and other Shiite Muslim armed groups in Iraq and Syria.

The spiral of violence in the Middle East, as war rages in Gaza, has increased the risk of high-intensity conflict in the region, despite diplomatic efforts to ease tensions (archived link).

The war in Gaza began after Hamas launched an unprecedented attack against Israel on October 7, 2023, which left 1,206 people dead, most of them civilians, according to an AFP report based on official Israeli figures.

The militants also kidnapped 251 people, Israelis and foreigners, of whom 97 are still detained in Gaza, 34 of whom died according to the Israeli army.

Israel’s retaliatory military offensive in Gaza has killed more than 42,430 people, also mostly civilians, according to the Health Ministry in the Hamas-controlled territory. The UN says the figures are reliable.

The clip ricocheted across social media, including X, YouTube and the Chinese platform Xigua Video, as the anniversary of the October 7 attacks approached.

“Shock and awe”

A Google reverse image search and keyword searches found similar images in an article that mentions the 2003 U.S. bombing of Baghdad, known as “Operation Shock and Awe” (archived link).

The term was coined by Washington to describe its bombing campaign that year, which lit up the skies and destroyed swaths of Iraq during the invasion by the United States and its allies.

Below is a comparison of the video shared in fake posts (left) and in an article by Turkish media outlet OdaTV from October 2022 (right):

Various Baghdad buildings can be seen in the images, including Zaqura Castle and the Baghdad Clock (archived here and here).

An AFP photo taken in Baghdad by photographer Ramzi Haidar on March 21, 2003 shows the scene of the strikes in the video (archived link).

Images of the bombing in Baghdad that day were widely published by the media, including the American channel CNN and the British channel ITN (archived here and here).

Seven seconds into the ITN video report, a huge explosion can be seen near Zaqura Castle. This building is also visible after 3 seconds of the video compilation shared in fake messages.

The United States launched major airstrikes against Iraq on March 20, 2003, claiming that Saddam Hussein’s regime illegally possessed weapons of mass destruction, although none were ever found (archived link).

Washington launched its “shock and awe” campaign the next day, raining bombs on Baghdad, before a US-Britain-led coalition ground invasion that ended Saddam’s regime and led to a nearly nine-year war.

AFP has denied another similar video falsely shared as Hamas strikes Israel in October 2023.