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Indian Media Outlets Share 2019 Photo As Recent Blast In Kabul
Writer: Shivam Singh
He has a strong interest in international relations and politics. He fact-check's information, identify false reports, and gives you engaging stories that are supported by reliable data.
Delhi, 25 Aug 2022 9:46 AM GMT
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Creatives : Shivam Singh
He has a strong interest in international relations and politics. He fact-check's information, identify false reports, and gives you engaging stories that are supported by reliable data.
On August 17, 2022, a massive explosion occurred inside a mosque during evening prayers, shaking the capital of Afghanistan. Several news organisations broadcasted a 2019 image of a Kabul explosion claiming it to be depicting images from the recent August 17, 2022 explosion.
Several news organisations broadcasted a 2019 image of a Kabul explosion claiming it to be depicting images from the recent August 17, 2022 explosion in the Afghan capital.
On August 17, 2022, a massive explosion occurred inside a mosque during evening prayers, shaking the capital of Afghanistan. According to Reuters, the explosion took place in the Kabul neighborhood of Khair Khana. According to Kabul police, the blast claimed the lives of 21 people.
Claim:
The picture depicts a blast that happened in Afghanistan's capital city of Kabul.
The Guardian, a UK-based website, included the picture and the following caption in a piece about the explosion "A Taliban intelligence officer said the explosion occurred in a mosque in the Khair Khana area of Kabul. Photograph: Twitter".
ANI tweeted the same image as visuals from the recent blast and filed a copy carrying the image attributing it to an 'Afghan' twitter user.
In their articles about the current blast, The Times Of India, Hindustan Times, Zee Salaam, and Organiser Weekly all included the viral image.
Fact Check:
When we first performed a reverse image search on the picture, we discovered a Vox story with the exact identical picture and the phrase, "Smoke rises from the scene of a bombing in Kabul, Afghanistan, on July 1, 2019," on it.
The Vox article credited the image to getty, a photo wire agency and a keyword search, led us to the same photo published on getty images' website.
The photo on Getty was credited to photojournalist Haroon Sabawoon for Turkish wire agency Anadolu. The photo was uploaded in 2019 with the caption, "Smoke rises from the scene of a suicide bombing in Kabul, Afghanistan, July 01, 2019. At least 10 people were killed and 65 more injured in a suicide bombing, followed by gunfight at a Defense Ministrys installation in the Afghan capital Kabul on Monday, officials and local media confirmed." After that, we searched for news articles regarding the 2019 blast and discovered ones from July 1, 2019, which said that the Taliban had targeted numerous Kabul buildings, including a facility belonging to the defence ministry. According to the New York Times, the incident, which "killed at least 40 people in Kabul on Monday, heavily damaged a private war museum, an adjacent television station, and a primary school, injuring dozens of children," was "a complicated Taliban attack including a car-bombing and militant assault."
A Reuters story published on July 1, 2019, reported a statement by the Taliban about the blast where the terrorist group said, it was "...targeting the defence ministry compound in Kabul." The report further said, "the blast injured several Taliban fighters, civilians and government employees." We then checked for details from the recent, August 17, 2022 blast in Kabul and found that the blast happened inside a mosque. Pictures of the bombed mosque were uploaded by wire agency The Associated Press' on their site. We noticed that none of the recent visuals matched the viral picture. A Reuters report about the incident can be seen below.
Conclusion:
In our Fact Check, we found that image of the blast which were shared by various news agency were from suicide bombing in Kabul, Afghanistan, July 01, 2019 and not from the recent bomb blasts on August 17, 2022.
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