A post on social media platforms containing two images of dilapidated buildings has gone viral, claiming that the Indian Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, was recently "targeted in a brutal terrorist attack."
Those sharing them also noted that "brave diplomats were martyred in the line of duty."
What we found: We ran a relevant keyword search on Google but did not find any reliable reports or statements regarding any recent assault on the Indian embassy in Afghanistan.
India closed its embassy in Afghanistan after the Taliban's takeover in 2021 and in June 2022, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) announced in a statement that a technical team had been sent to the Indian embassy in Kabul as per Arab News.
In May 2025, India restarted the visa service for Afghan nationals seeking to enter the country for business, education, and medical care, reported NDTV.
We subsequently ran a Google reverse image search on the images to find its origin.
Image 1: The reverse image search led us to a report by USA Today from May 2014 which carried the viral image, crediting it to Associated Press.
With this hint, Team WebQoof looked for the image on the news outlets website and found the original photo from 23 May 2014.
The image was taken by photojournalist Hoshang Hashimi, with the caption, "Afghan security forces watch a house burn at the site of a clash between insurgents and security forces at the Indian Consulate in Herat, Afghanistan, Friday, May 23, 2014."
Indian authorities stated there was a threat to its diplomats in the country but provided no further information, it noted.
Image 2: The image showing a structure of a dilapidated building also went viral.
We ran a Google and Yandex reverse image search and were led to an Al Jazeera report from 31 May 2017.
The report included the same viral image and credited it to Reuters.
We ran a manual keyword search and found a Reuters report from 1 June 2017.
It noted that Afghan officials inspected outside the German embassy after a blast in Kabul.
In this incident, at least 80 people were injured due to a bomb hidden inside a truck.
Conclusion: Old images have been shared to falsely claim that the Indian embassy in Kabul was attacked recently.
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