11-Year-Old Video From Iraq Falsely Revived as 2019 Pulwama Attack Footage

The video has been on the internet since 2008, predating the Pulwama attack by 11 years.

A video showing an explosion on a road, followed by visuals of a wrecked vehicle and people has gone viral on social media.

The claim: The footage is being shared to claim that it shows the attack on a convoy of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel which took place on 14 February 2019 in Pulwama, Jammu and Kashmir.

• Those sharing the video recall the day as a 'Black Day', mourning the 40 jawans who lost their lives in the attack.

(Archived versions of more posts sharing this claim can be seen here and here.)

Is it true?: No, the claim is false.

• The video predates the 2019 Pulwama attack by at least 11 years and shows footage from Iraq.

How did we find out the truth?: We ran a reverse image search on the visuals by taking a screenshot and uploading it to Google Images, which led us to a YouTube video sharing the same visuals.

• This video, titled 'Huge Iraq Bomb Explosion', was shared on 25 November 2007, whereas the Pulwama attack happened in 2019.

• Under a Reddit post dated 23 July 2012 which carried the same video, a user commented that it showed an attack on "Camp Taji/Camp Cooke", north of Iraq's Baghdad.

• They added that it showed a Vehicle-Borne Improvised Explosive Device (VBIED) going off on a highway, which killed Iraqi army personnel and a few civilians.

A keyword search for 'camp taji vbied 2007' on Google led to another YouTube video, uploaded in December 2009 by one Brian Spalding.

• In the video's description, Spalding said that the footage was from 2 September 2007, shot outside the gate of Camp Taji in Iraq.

The second half of the viral video authentically shows visuals of the attack on the CRPF convoy in Pulwana, which The Quint had also reported on.

You can see some of the visuals in our 2019 report here.

Team WebQoof has debunked this video, which has been shared with the same false claim about the Pulwama attack, twice in the past.

• The claim first went viral in 2019, days after the tragedy which claimed 40 lives.

• It was revived in 2021, when people shared the video with the same claim to mourn the attack.

Conclusion: A 11-year-old video has gone viral with the false claim that it shows footage of the 2019 attack on a CRPF convoy in Pulwama, Jammu and Kashmir.

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