The conflict between Yemen’s HouthiĀ rebelsĀ and Saudi Arabia has sharply escalated in recent days, with Houthi forces making rapid gains along the Red Sea coast and taking control of key areas around the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.
Saudi Arabia has respondedĀ with airstrikes. Houthi forces have launched drones and missiles towards Saudi territory. The renewed fighting has also raised concerns about global tradeĀ via the Red Sea.
The conflict has also spread online, where significantĀ disinformation has circulated.
DW’s fact-checking team examined what isĀ circulating and why a conflict that is so hard to observe independently leaves so much room for this kind of disinformation.
Nine-secondĀ viral clip
One nine-second clip has goneĀ viral. It shows a huge explosion between buildings, with fireballs and screaming in the background.
Claim: A user posted the video on X with the Arabic caption “Yemeni forces are carrying out the strongest strikes in various areas in Saudi Arabia, including Abha.”Ā The video has more than 340,000 views.Ā
It was also posted in other languages, falsely claiming that it showed real footage from the current fighting.
DW Fact check: Fake and AI-generated
The video is not only old, but also artificially generated. There are several visual clues in the clip such as the pattern of the explosions and the uniform way the smoke spreads.
A large-scale explosion of this kind would also have generated a very bright flash, and nearby buildings would likelyĀ have collapsedĀ or at least had their windowsĀ shattered. Neither appears to have happened.Ā
One can also see, in the final seconds of the video, how a lamppost appears out of nowhere in the middle of the frame.
The audio is mostly unintelligible, but the speaker’s tone does not appear to change after the huge explosion. Such a large explosion would normally be expected to trigger some audible reactionĀ in the speaker’s voice.Ā
On the technical side, Hive Moderation’s AI detection analysis also confirmed that the video was artificially generated.
The very same video was sharedĀ this June, then claiming to show explosions in Iran, as we found with a reverse image search.
Not enoughĀ verified information from Yemen
The recycling of old or unrelated footage is not new to the Yemen conflict.
Hannah Porter has spent years researching fake news and disinformation in Yemen and the country’s wider information environment. She says this has been happening for years.
“There is less international attention in Yemen than there might be in other conflicts around the world. And, because there is not sufficient attention paid to Yemen, I think that allows more space for disinformation to spread not only within Yemen and in the region, but globally about Yemen,” Porter told DW.
The Houthis seized Yemin’s capital, Sanaa, and expanded their control in 2014. Saudi Arabia intervened militarily in 2015 in support of Yemen’s internationally recognised government.
A UN-brokered truce in 2022 sharply reduced fighting, but it did not resolve the conflict. Fighting has since intensified again.
The Houthis now control large parts of northern and western Yemen. Saudi Arabia supports forces opposing them, while Iran has provided the Houthis with military support.
Experts and media watchdogs such asĀ Reporters Without Borders have repeatedly pointed out that reporting from parts of Yemen remains extremely difficult. Journalists face threats, and independent media outlets are under intense pressure. This contributes to the spread of disinformation.
It is “very difficult to get reliable information, especially now and especially in the north [of Yemen],” Porter said.
She said researchers and the international community were struggling to establish what is happening in northern Yemen.
Military exercise becomes ambush
The second video that DW Fact check examined shows how genuine footage can become a source of disinformation.
Claim: A 30-second clip posted on X shows a convoy of military vehicles passing through a desert. Moments later, large explosions erupt and several vehicles are engulfed in smoke and flames. The caption reads:Ā “The most beautiful thing I’ve seen: Houthis ambush against the Saudi-Backed Mercenaries’ convoy in Yemeni.”
DW Fact check: False
The video is old and unrelated to the ongoing conflict.
A timestamp visible in the video points to March 10, 2024. A reverse image search led DW to an older video published on YouTube in April 2024.
That video claims to show a Houthi military exercise. Its caption, written in Arabic, describes a simulated ambush on Israeli positions and attacks on US and British forces. Israeli and American flags can be seen in the footage.
DW also traced the sequence to a 42-minute video published by Yemeni War Media, an outlet affiliated with the Houthi movement.Ā
Interestingly, the audio of that clip was changed. The version that is now circulating contains dramatic commentary, which is actually sports commentary from a football match played in 2018, as clips from that match show.Ā
As is often the case, the clip with the convoy has also been usedĀ previously in different contexts.
With much of Yemen’s media landscape weakened by the conflict, reliable information about events can be difficult to obtain.
That makes it harder for people to independently assess footage circulating online, Porter said. She added that unverified and misattributed videos can significantlyĀ shape perceptions of how battles are unfolding elsewhere.Ā
“Any image or video that you see that is purported to be of a specific battle in Yemen, you have to be really skeptical,” Porter said. “And you have to find a way to fact check it.”
Emad Hassan contributed to this article
Edited by Uta Steinwehr and Thomas Sparrow