Video showing drone stuck in wires isn’t from Iran’s April 13 attack on Israel

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A widely shared social media video shows a drone that got stuck in wires in Syria in February. It has no connection to Iran’s April 13 launch of 300 drones and missiles to Israel, as some posts claimed.

See the sources for this fact-check

A day after Iran sent 300 missiles and drones toward Israel, social media users shared a video of a drone that appeared to be tangled in wires and claimed it was among those launched by Iran.

An April 14 Facebook reel shared a video of the drone, with sticker text that read, "One of the Iranian drones got stuck in electric pole wires in Iraq."

The post didn’t mention Israel, but it was posted a day after Iran launched more than 300 drones and missiles at Israel, 99% of which were intercepted, the Israeli military said.

We also found social media posts on Instagram, X, TikTok and YouTube sharing the same video and claiming it was a drone sent by Iran to Israel that didn’t hit its target.

But a reverse-image search on key frames from the video shows a different story. The drone was not tangled in wires in Iraq and had no connection to Iran’s April 13 attack on Israel.

(Facebook screenshot)

Instagram posts

stated on April 2, 2024 in an Instagram post

“The National Guard in the HISTORY of its life, gets called in AFTER a disaster, not BEFORE something happens.”

We found an X account called Vlogging NW Syria that posted images Feb. 20 showing the same drone tangled in wires with the same background seen in the video. The post caption contained a typo and read, "An unidentified drone crashes into electroc cables in the town of Qamar al-Din in the Hasakah countryside."

An April 14 X post shared the video and said it was old, attaching a screenshot of a Feb. 20 post that showed a vertical photo of the drone with the words, "Syria: photo of the day. An unidentified drone stuck in electric wires in Hasakah province."

Al-Hasakah is in northeastern Syria. A Syrian news site also posted the video on X in February and described it as "an unidentified drone crashed in the village of Qamar Al-Din of the town Abu Khashab northwest of Deir Ezzor." Abu Khashab is about 65 miles southwest of Al-Hasakah, according to Google maps.

We also found a video posted Feb. 20 on YouTube and Instagram by Syria TV, a Turkish station that focuses on Syria news. The station’s YouTube page, translated using Google, described it as "an unidentified military drone gets stuck on telephone lines in eastern Syria." The Instagram post said, "In an unfamiliar scene Unidentified military aircraft stuck in eastern telephone lines."

A Syria TV article, also translated by Google, described an armed drone that got stuck on telephone lines in Qamar al-Din, a village in the Hasakah countryside. It added that local sources said the drone belonged to Iranian militias.

The video of the drone tangled in wires is not related to Iran’s attack on Israel. The claim is False.