
An analysis of circulating video clips claiming to target the Saudi capital, Riyadh, shows that they date back to old events or different contexts.
AI-generated summary
These rumors coincided with the activation of early warning systems in Riyadh, creating a fertile environment for the spread of misinformation.
Social media accounts circulated video clips attributed to Houthi attacks on the Saudi capital, Riyadh.
Circulating clips showed what appeared to be huge night fires and thick clouds of smoke, and other scenes of the moment rockets fell and fragments flew into the sky.
Posts, some of which had more than a million views on X alone, claimed to be linked to attacks on Riyadh, including King Khalid International Airport.
By breaking the scenes down into still shots and using a reverse search, we found many versions of the clips in circulation dating back years.
One of these clips claimed that what it showed was related to a fire at King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh.
However, we found a published version of the video on TikTok on August 21, 2025.
At that time, the video was accompanied by a description saying: “The fire in the Al-Rimal neighborhood, these stores are burning for the second time in 3 years,” wondering why it broke out again.
The Riyadh Civil Defense had announced at the time that it had been able to extinguish “a fire in commercial stores in the Al-Rimal neighborhood, and there were no casualties.”
A Yemeni account on the website
A reverse search for the video showed a similar clip on YouTube, posted on August 6, 2021. However, there is no clear context for the video.
A third clip spread, accompanied by claims that it was "Urgent: Al-Houthi targeted Riyadh a short while ago. Hypersonic missiles. Explosions in Riyadh now."
While our investigation revealed that the video is of missiles that Iran had launched at Israel on June 15, 2025, during what it called “Operation True Promise 3,” in response to an attack that Israel called “Rising Lion.”
The circulation of these videos in misleading contexts during the last hours coincided with the activation of the early warning in Saudi Arabia within the scope of Riyadh, before the Civil Defense Authority announced, on Saturday, the end of the state of danger in the capital.
The warnings come as the Houthi group in Yemen, supported by Iran, escalates its attacks on Saudi Arabia. At the same time, the group accused the Kingdom of launching air strikes on governorates under its control.

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