A video shared on Facebook claims to show former Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad’s plane crashing.
Verdict: False
The video is not from Syria. It is from India.
Fact Check:
The video claims to show Assad’s plane going down around Homs, killing him. One user wrote, “BREAKNEWS | PLANE CRASH OF SYRIAN PRESIDENT BASHAR AL ASSAD NEAR HOMS! IT DEPARTED DAMASCUS AIRPORT, TOOK A TURN AND REACHED AN ALTITUDE OF 500 METERS! THEN CRASHED!”
This claim is false. Through a reverse image search, Check Your Fact found that the video shows a plane crash in India, not Syria. It shows an Indian Air Force MiG-29 that crashed around September. A video of the crash was shared to YouTube by the Indian Express,
“An Indian Air Force MiG-29 jet encountered a critical technical issue during a routine night training mission in the Barmer sector in Rajasthan, leading the pilot to eject safely. No casualties or property damage were reported. A Court of Inquiry has been ordered to investigate the incident,” reads part of the video description.
Al-Assad, the longtime leader of the Syrian Arab Republic, was granted asylum in Moscow after his regime collapsed following a rebel offensive, according to Reuters. There is no evidence any aircraft of his crashed in Syria or elsewhere.
AFP Fact Check also debunked the claim. ( RELATED: Ben Shapiro Didn’t Say That Syrian Christians Potential Slaughter Was A ‘Good Thing’)
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