A video falsely shared as showing the aftermath of a September 19 Houthi strike on Riyadh actually shows a fire at Moscow’s Sadovod shopping centre after a drone attack months earlier, AFP found. The footage is unrelated to the Saudi fighting.
A reverse-image search led AFP to an Azattyq Asia video published June 20, showing the same fire from another angle and reporting a blaze at Sadovod after a drone attack. Gazeta.Ru and Ukraine’s Ukrinform also published footage of the Moscow fire on June 18.
A Houthi attack on Riyadh on September 19 was the first to target the Saudi capital in years. AFP journalists saw an Aramco-marked fuel tank burning near King Khalid International Airport; FlightRadar24 reported major problems at the airport before normal traffic resumed.
