Amidst the ongoing Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict where the death toll has crossed 250, two videos of shots being fired at fighter jets have gone viral on social media.
Video 1: On October 9, TV9 Bharatvarsh aired one of the viral videos on multiple bulletins (1,2). The channel even added an “exclusive” watermaker on the clip.
Prior to TV9’s bulletin, on October 8, the video was widely shared on social media. Twitter user ‘Col. Abhay Rishi (Veteran)’ posted the 40-second clip and wrote, “A video of MiG 25 being shot down by Armenia using the Shilka Air Defence System.”
Video of a MiG 25 being shot down by Armenia using the Shilka Air Defence System…@WW3Info pic.twitter.com/ZiZjiodnIZ
тАФ Col. Abhay Rishi ( Veteran) (@AbhayRishi28) October 8, 2020
This video has in fact been shared by several other users who claim to be associated with the Indian military тАФ @Thapar77Thapar (archived link), @MjaVinod (archived link), @VINODKU18374194 (archived link), and @india_narrative (archived link).
It is also widely circulating on Facebook. Alt News received several requests to fact-check on our WhatsApp helpline (+917600011160) and official Android application.
Video 2: On September 30, Twitter user @HlyahulyaAKgn posted another video along with Turkish text, “The moment of the downing of an Armenian plane.” It has been retweeted over 1,500 times and gained over 1.5 lakh views (archived link).
(Translated from Turkish Ermenistan u├зa─Я─▒n─▒n d├╝┼Я├╝r├╝lme an─▒)
Ermenistan u├зa─Я─▒n─▒n d├╝┼Я├╝r├╝lme an─▒тЭдЁЯЗ╣ЁЯЗ╖ЁЯЗжЁЯЗ┐тЭд pic.twitter.com/ibCf3BpBCp
тАФ H├╝lya (@HlyahulyaAKgn) September 29, 2020
‘ARMA3’ video game clip goes viral
Alt News had debunked a similar video in January which was viral as US anti-missile defence batteries taking down Iranian missiles.
A Japanese YouTube user ( уВМуБДуБХуБДуБКуВУуБШ) uploaded several videos of ‘AMRA 3’ which is a military tactical shooter video game. The clips uploaded on YouTube end with a disclaimer in Japanese (уБУуБохЛХчФ╗уБп уАБуГХуВгуВпуВ╖уГзуГ│уБзуБЩ уАВчЩ╗ха┤уБЩуВЛф║║чЙйуГ╗хЫгф╜УуГ╗хРНчз░чнЙуБпцЮ╢чй║уБзуБВуВК уАБхоЯхЬиуБоуВВуБоуБиуБпщЦвф┐ВуБВуВКуБ╛уБЫуВУ уАВ) that translates to, тАЬThis video is fiction. Characters, groups, names, etc. are fictitious and have nothing to do with real things.тАЭ
The first viral video was uploaded by the Japanese YouTuber in August.
This video is 2:13 minutes long. Readers should note that the video by Col. Abhay Rishi (Veteran) begins at the 1.26 mark.
We could not find Video 2 on the YouTube channel or on other sources. However, we did come across footage posted by the Japanese YouTube user which has similar background settings such as the streetlight/ electric pole. Furthermore, the sound of bullet firing is identical.
Therefore it is clear that the viral videos don’t represent the ongoing military conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijani. Genuine footage of the aerial conflict has been reported in the media.
A television footage showed an alleged Armenian drone being shot down in the Nagorno-Karabakh region, as fighting between Azerbaijan and Armenian forces continued for a sixth day pic.twitter.com/LiqP34FGyQ
тАФ Reuters (@Reuters) October 2, 2020
Armenian Ministry of Defense: The footage shows how the Azerbaijani TOS-1A heavy artillery systems are placed in a settlement and open fire from there https://t.co/khaZZVj2VE pic.twitter.com/CUBAzLSBlH via @ShStepanyan #Caucasus
тАФ Liveuamap (@Liveuamap) September 29, 2020
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