Video shows Chile wildfires, not Iran attacking Israel
Social media has been swamped with footage falsely shared as Iran's unprecedented drone and missile attack on Israel on April 13, 2024. One widespread video of flames lighting up the night sky was in fact filmed in Chile weeks before Tehran's assault. The inferno in the coastal region of Valparaiso razed entire communities and left at least 133 dead.
"Iran launches strike against Israel," reads a simplified Chinese post on Weibo shared on April 14, 2024.
"Iran attacked key targets in Israel from multiple directions with multiple batches of explosions."
The video shows fires blazing near a highway at night.
The footage spread in similar posts falsely linking it to Iran's attack, including on Instagram, YouTube, X -- formerly Twitter -- and TikTok's Chinese version Douyin.
Tehran's launch of over 300 drones and missiles came in response to an April 1 strike on its consulate in Damascus, which was widely blamed on Israel.
The Israeli military said it intercepted 99 percent of the aerial threats with the help of the United States and other allies, and that the attack caused only minor damage, including to a military base in the country's south.
But regional tensions surged after the assault, as world leaders called for restraint to avoid escalation.
The Israeli retaliation appeared to come on April 19, when Iranian media reported blasts in the central province of Isfahan.
Chile wildfires
A Google reverse image search and keyword searches found the video in a TikTok post from February 3, 2024 which said it showed fires in Chile.
"Evacuating #fire #achupallas terrible to see the homes of friends and neighbours burning but even more painful to see little animals scorched to a crisp. God help us," the Spanish-language caption says.
Achupallas is a neighbourhood in the seaside resort of Viña del Mar in Chile's Valparaiso region.
On February 2, several fires broke out simultaneously around the city, known for a music festival and its beaches.
The infernos claimed the lives of at least 133 people and destroyed some 7,000 homes in the deadliest natural disaster to befall Chile since a 2010 earthquake and tsunami killed around 500 people.
The video was posted by a TikTok user called "pat_land" but later removed. AFP found an archived version of the post on the WayBack Machine archiving tool.
Below is a screenshot comparison from a post falsely sharing the video as Iran's attack on Israel (left) and the TikTok video (right):
The Citizen Action Chile media outlet also shared the video on Facebook on February 4, 2024 with the caption: "Achupallas, Viña del Mar" (archived link).
AFP confirmed the video was filmed in Viña del Mar by comparing the footage to Google Maps images of the area.
An electricity pole, footbridge, trees and a road barrier seen in the footage are visible on Google Street View images from the intersection between a street called Livingstone and the Carlos Ibáñez del Campo road.
AFP has debunked more videos falsely shared as Iran's attack on Israel here.
