Video of drone stuck in wires predates Iran's April 2024 attack on Israel | Fact check

Andre Byik, USA TODAY
·2 min read

The claim: Video shows failed Iranian drone in April 13, 2024, attack against Israel

An April 14 Instagram post (direct link, archive link) shows an unmanned aerial vehicle hanging from overhead utility wires.

"Unconfirmed footage allegedly shows an Iranian drone launched towards Israel which struck power lines in Iraq," the post's caption reads.

The post was liked more than 10,000 times in two days.

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Our rating: False

The footage predates Iran's air attack against Israel on April 13. While the circumstances of the video are unclear, it has circulated on social media since at least February.

Video shared on social media in February 2024

Iran and its proxies in Yemen, Syria and Iraq launched an "unprecedented" air attack against Israel on April 13, President Joe Biden said. U.S. forces helped Israel down "nearly all of the incoming drones and missiles," the president said. The assault included more than 300 drones and missiles.

The video in the Instagram post does not show a drone launched in this assault, however. The video was posted on social media platforms more than a month before Iran's April 13 attack.

While the circumstances of the footage are unclear, multiple social media posts described it as showing a drone crash in Syria.

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A video was shared Feb. 20 in a post on X, formerly Twitter, with an Arabic-language caption that described the drone as having crashed in the town of Abu Khashab in eastern Syria. Footage of the drone caught in wires also appeared in a Feb. 21 post on YouTube with a caption that said an unidentified military drone got stuck in phone lines in eastern Syria.

The Instagram user who shared the video did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Quint also debunked the claim.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Drone video not from Iran's air attack on Israel | Fact check