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Fact Check: Syrian ATGM Strike Posed as Mariupol Combat Footage
Published 2 years ago
Recently resurfaced footage recorded in Syria has been circulating today posed as footage recorded during the fighting in the besieged Ukrainian city of Mariupol.
If you've been on the internet today, there's a chance you've seen this footage circulating. It's being propped up as footage recorded by the Azov Regiment inside of Mariupol destroying Russian armor. The new version of this video has had the top cropped out to hide the Jaysh al-Izzah logo, and the audio has been dubbed over with Ukrainian music to make it appear more legitimate.
The fact of the matter is that this footage was recorded in 2017. The missile being used is a BGM-71 TOW Missile that was provided to Syrian fighters during the Syrian Civil War. The footage itself was originally published on May 6, 2017, and it was recorded on the al-Zalaqiat front-lines in Hama, Syria. We originally blogged this on the last iteration of our webpage back in the Summer of 2017 shortly after it was published. For anyone who thinks they'll sneak these ATGM strikes out onto the internet and pass them off as current, I'd like to remind you specifically that the team here at Funker530 has seen nearly every piece of combat footage that came out of the Syrian Civil War, and we won't hesitate to call it out when we see it.
Publishing fake content for the purpose of clout does no one any favors in this conflict. The only people who benefit are the organizations and individuals who post the fake content to their Instagram and Facebook feeds with no policing, which gets them views and in turn more clicks and likes. If you're seeing this video being spread, please call it out as soon as possible, as it aids absolutely no one in the conflict and only hurts the credibility of all individuals involved.
If you're seeing any footage that is from another conflict being posed as Syria, please let us know. Even if it's on our own webpage. Our team is human too, and even we can make mistakes.
