&Quot;Israel&Quot; &Quot;Iran&Quot;

Did NATO launch more than 10,000 air raids on Libya in 2011 with over 500,000 civilian casualties? No, that's not true: According to a NATO official, the claim is "bogus." The director of the nonprofit watchdog group Airwars says the account of 500,000 civilian casualties is "not supported by any public claim." The claim appeared as a Twitter thread published…

Did Nathaniel Rothschild write a letter to members of the British government calling Russian President Vladimir Putin "the most dangerous man since the defeat of Hitler"? No, that's not true: "This is utterly untrue and completely fabricated," a spokesperson from Rothschild's investment company told Lead Stories. The claim appeared in a Facebook post (archived here) on March 4, 2022. It…

Does a TikTok video featuring multiple launching rockets show the Palestinian political and militant group Hamas launching rockets toward Tel Aviv, Israel during the 2021 hostilities over sites considered holy by Muslims and Jews? No, that's not true: The outdated video clip has circulated since at least 2018 with a variety of false captions about the location of the launch.…

Is the coronavirus fake and actually a governmental cover-up to allow the deployment of 5G network towers? And is the radiation from those 5G towers the real cause of virus deaths? No, none of that is true: A post being shared is filled with dangerous and factually incorrect information. For one thing, the coronavirus is spreading in places that do…

Did a former and controversial CIA officer say coronavirus was definitively produced in a lab? No, an Iranian news website selectively quoted as fact what was only speculation from the former CIA agent helping run a site associated with Russian disinformation campaigns. The claim originated in an article published by Tehran-based Press TV on March 6, 2020, titled "Coronavirus was…

Did Pope Francis bow down to the "Order of the Illuminati" and kiss their hands and feet? No, that's not true: The Pope kissed the feet of once-warring Sudanese leaders in the hopes of urging them not to return to a civil war. The video being shared contained false captions and ascribed the actions to a "secret world government" conspiracy…

Did a YouTube account post real footage of a missile intercept system used during a recent missile attack in Iraq? No, that's not true: The footage is not real, and it is actually part of a videogame that has been used to spoof other global conflicts over the years. The story originated from a video published by What's Happening Around…

Does a video making the rounds on social media show Iran's Ayatollah going crazy following the killing of Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani by a U.S. drone strike? No, that's not true: This is an old video, put in a loop and portraying an animated - and now deceased - Ayatollah that dates to at least 2003. The reaction and the…

As news of the retaliatory airstrikes from Iran on Iraq's Ain Assad Air Base spread around the world the evening of January 7, 2020, fake stories and falsely attributed photos also began to surface on social media. One photo from 2019 has been put forward by many sources, including the Islamic Republic News Agency, claiming to show the actual attacks…

UPDATE: Iran announced on January 7, 2020, that the country had attacked bases in Iraq where U.S. forces are stationed. This attack did not occur on January 3, 2020, as claimed in the fake story below. Iran said the attack was in retaliation for the killing by the U.S. of Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani, a top Revolutionary Guards commander. UPDATE…