Yemen: Fact-checking videos claiming to show Houthi rebel attacks

A video claiming to show Houthi rebels ambushing Saudi-backed mercenaries has racked up major views on X. But the FRANCE 24 Observers found it is actually footage of 2024 Houthi military drills. The clip was edited with football commentary and blurred flags, which originally show Israel, the UK and US, not Saudi Arabia. Other viral videos falsely linked to Houthi attacks on a Saudi Aramco refinery were also traced to unrelated fires in Texas and Russia. Vedika Bahl fact-checks in Truth or Fake.

Pro-Russian and Arabic-speaking accounts have been falsely sharing a video claiming to show Iran-backed Houthi rebels ambushing Saudi-backed mercenaries, the forces allied with Yemen’s internationally recognised government.

The viral video shows a convoy travelling through what appears to be a desert landscape before several vehicles are engulfed in explosions. The footage is difficult to make out, while the audio appears to feature an excited commentator cheering as the vehicles go up in flames.

But the video does not show a Houthi ambush of Saudi-backed forces, and it has no connection to the current offensive. Instead, it shows a military exercise filmed in 2024. We were able to trace the video back to the military media section of the Houthi website, where the original was published in 2024. While the footage is genuinely linked to the Houthis, it has been stripped of its original context.

The original is a 42-minute video showing military drills involving the Houthis’ “Sixth Military Region” reserve forces. The exercise, titled “Jerusalem is our Way,” depicts a series of manoeuvres carried out by Houthi fighters in front of an audience seated in stands. The sequence circulating online appears at around the 32-minute mark.

The longer, original footage also provides a crucial detail that is obscured in the viral version: the vehicles being targeted are decorated with the flags of Israel, the United Kingdom and the United States, not Saudi Arabia.

The original footage contains only ambient sound. The excited sports-like commentary heard in the viral version was added later. We traced that audio to a football match commentated by Hafid Derradji, one of the best-known Arabic-language football commentators.

In other words, the viral video has likely been doctored to add unrelated commentary and obscure the flags, helping create the impression that it shows a real attack on Saudi-backed forces.

It is just one example of how misleading footage is being circulated amid the Houthis’ advance in Yemen. Several other videos have also been falsely presented as showing Houthi attacks on the Saudi Aramco refinery in Jizan.

One video, showing an unidentified blaze, has been viewed and shared hundreds of thousands of times. But it actually dates back to March and was filmed in Texas at the Valero oil refinery.

A second video, showing a refinery fire from the air, was also falsely linked to the Houthis.That footage dates to April and actually shows fires at Russia’s Tuapse oil refinery following Ukrainian drone attacks.

There is, however, a real development involving Saudi oil infrastructure. Regional officials said this week that a crucial Saudi oil pipeline operated by Aramco would remain out of service for several weeks after being struck in a Houthi attack.

But the misleading videos circulating online are unrelated to that incident.