ISLAMABAD – A video has been viewed hundreds of thousands of times inFacebook and YouTube posts which claim it shows Pakistani JF-17 Thunderjets destroying ground targets with bombs. The claim is false; the video isactually made up of different clips of South Korean and US military planesand weapons; some of the footage has circulated online since beforePakistan acquired JF-17s.
The four-minute 15-second video was published in thislink post on September 8, 2019. It has beenviewed more than 1.9 million times.
The misleading post’s Urdu-language caption translates to English as:“Praise to Allah. Look at the aim of Pakistan’s JF-17 Thunder B jet andplease share the video.”
Below is a screenshot of the misleading Facebook post:Screenshot of the misleading Facebook post
The video was also shared here link, herelink here linkFacebook and on YouTube here link a similarclaim.
The claim is false; the video does not show Pakistani military jets.
A reverse image search of keyframes from the video obtained using the InVIDanalysis tool found different clips had been compiled to create the videoin the misleading posts.– ‘Korean F-15 Slam Eagles’ —
The first portion of the misleading Facebook video, which lasts forone minute 45 seconds, has been taken from thislink video published on February 11, 2019.
The video’s caption states: “This compilation footage shows jets from theRepublic of Korea Air Force (ROKAF) firing multiple types ofprecision-guided munitions.”
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The YouTube channel that posted the footage describeslink itself as”an unofficial channel dedicated to collecting and uploading South KoreanMilitary-related contents for the sake of international audience.”
The footage used in the misleading post corresponds exactly with thefootage in the Korean YouTube video — including Korean subtitles — fromthe 46 second mark to the one-minute 42-second mark.
The Korean YouTube channel identifies this section of the footage as datingfrom 2015 and says the jet and bomb seen in this section of the footageare “F-15K Slam Eagles – GBU-28 Bunker Buster”.
Below is a screenshot comparison of the misleading Facebook video (L) andthe Korean YouTube video F-15 (R):A screenshot comparison of the misleading Facebook video (L) and YouTubevideo of the Korean video of a F-15 dropping a bomb (R)
Seoul’s defence ministry declined comment on the YouTube footage, saying ithad not been edited and released by them.
In both the misleading footage and the Korean video, a red five point staron a white background is clearly visible on one of the target buildings.
Below is a comparison of the star in the misleading footage (L) and theKorean video (R) as highlighted by AFP: – APP/AFP
