Against the backdrop of the recent India-Pakistan armed conflict, Iranian media and Pakistani social media handles shared a video claiming that Pakistan army had destroyed the Adani-owned Hazira port in Gujarat by attacking it with multiple missiles.
Iran-based media organisation Tasnim News posted the video on its official X handle @Tasnimnews_Fa claiming that a fire had broken out at an Indian airbase in the northwestern Indian state of Gujarat after a Pakistani airstrike. (Archived link)
Jackson Hinkle, an American political commentator, influencer and host of the show Legitimate Targets, also made the same claim by sharing a video on X (formerly Twitter). The post was later deleted. (Archived link)
Several Pakistani handles @AthSa01, @Rahil__AD, @_iMAKsays also claimed that the Adani Airport in Gujarat had been destroyed.
Fact Check
Alt News performed a reverse image search with some key frames of the viral video. This led us to a news report by The Irish Sun published on July 7, 2021. Alongside a screenshot of the viral video, the report states that the sound of the explosion in the ‘oil tanker’ at Dubai’s Jebel Ali port was heard several miles away and glass from several nearby buildings also shattered due to its impact.
According to a report by Al Jazeera, a container ship docked at Jebel Ali Port, one of the world’s largest ports, caught fire after an explosion in Dubai, the commercial hub of the United Arab Emirates, on July 7, 2021. The Dubai Media Office (DMO) reported that the fire was eventually brought under control and there were no casualties, stating that the cause of the explosion was unknown.
Alt News also noticed that X user Saeed M from Dubai had shared this video on July 8, 2021, claiming it to be of the Jebel Ali Port in Dubai.
To sum it up, this viral video actually depicts the explosion of an oil container at Dubai’s Jebel Ali port 4 years ago. Some media outlets and Pakistani users are sharing it with the false claim that the Gujarat port was destroyed in Pakistani retaliation following ‘Operation Sindoor’.
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