Avideo clip of rapid gunfire in the night sky with a trail of black smoke has gone viral on social media with the claim that this is how the US military had shot down missiles fired by Iran at an American airbase in Iraq.
The caption along with the viral video says, “Iran fired 12 missiles at an American base in Iraq…old story. News report that – Iranian missiles missed. What is not talked about is the US automatic missile defence system that took almost all of them down. It’s a battery of 50 caliber guns that fires 3000 rounds per minute at the incoming missile(s). Here is a video of what happened.”
India Today Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA) found that the same video went viral last year too with the claim that this was Israel’s anti-missile defence system. AFWA had then debunked the claim after finding that it was a clip of a video game done with the help of computer-generated imagery (CGI).
AFWA probe
Several Facebook users such as “Rammarathe” and “Sikkander Sayam” have posted the video with similar claims. The video has gone viral on Facebook.
With the help of InVID tool, we reverse-searched key frames from the viral video. Also, by using keyword searches, we found the same video and similar ones uploaded by various YouTube channels dedicated to gaming.
One such Japanese YouTube channel uploaded a similar clip with mention of “CIWS Phalanx cruise missile BGM-109 Tomahawk ARMA3” in video details. This video was uploaded on June 24, 2019. We found that the viral clip is from the action video game ‘Arma 3’.
Upon closely observing the video, one could easily make out that it is CGI. Unlike real-life, the trail of black smoke vanishes too quickly in the sky.
