Old video claimed to be a Houthi military parade in Al-Mukha dates back to May 2024 and shows Bajil

CNN)-- Social media accounts circulated a video clip claiming to show scenes of a Houthi military parade in Mokha, after they took control of the strategic city overlooking the Red Sea coast.

A video (16 seconds long) shows armed men in military uniform walking through the streets of an urban area, while a crowd of people watch on both sides of a road.

The video received hundreds of thousands of views, with it being circulated across many accounts on the X website alone, driven by allegations saying: “The people of the city of Mokha receive the Yemeni armed forces after its liberation,” and “The Houthis organize a military parade in the city of Mokha after controlling it.”

CNN Arabic's investigation revealed that the video is old, and is not related to field developments in the city of Mokha, which Yemeni government officials confirmed to CNN, earlier Thursday, that Houthi fighters had controlled.

By splitting the video into still shots and using a reverse search, we found that it was an excerpt from a longer video, 25 minutes long, that the Houthi “War Media” website had published on May 8, 2024.

The circulating footage can be seen in the 17th minute of the “War Media” video, which was published at the time on the occasion of a military march carried out by a Houthi force with the slogan “Guardian of the Flood.”

At that time, “a symbolic force from the (Houthi) rapid intervention units... covered about 180 kilometers, starting from Bani Al-Mansour in the Al-Hayma Al-Kharjiyah District of Sana’a Governorate and to the city of Hodeidah, taking five days within the framework of raising combat readiness and in solidarity with the Palestinian people,” according to the military media website.

Upon analyzing the spatial evidence in the circulating video, CNN Arabic was able to determine the location of its filming, as it took place in the city of Bajil, located 51 kilometers northeast of the city of Hodeidah.

The video contains many evidence, for example the presence of a banner bearing the name “Jamaan Trade and Investment Company,” which is a commercial company with branches in the capital, Sana’a, and Hodeidah.

Google Maps maintains a snapshot of the facade of the company's branch in the city of Bajil, which was published on February 2024.

Although the video is old, it has resurfaced claiming that it was filmed in the city of Mocha during the last hours, but evidence confirms that the footage was filmed in the city of Bajil two years ago.

The Minister of Information in the internationally recognized Yemeni government confirmed to CNN that the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels had taken control of the city of Mokha on Thursday.

Information Minister Muammar Al-Eryani said: “I feel deeply saddened by what happened and the suffering and consequences that will ensue.” An informed source also reported to CNN that the Houthis have taken control of the port of Mokha overlooking the Red Sea.

Seizing this strategically important town would bring the rebels closer to the Bab al-Mandab Strait - which connects the Red Sea to the Indian Ocean - where they announced a blockade on Saudi shipping traffic.

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia - the world's largest oil exporter - has increased its reliance on the Red Sea to bypass the Strait of Hormuz, which is closed by Iran, making the security of the Bab al-Mandeb Strait of great importance to the global oil market.