Fact Check: Old photos, videos used to FALSELY claim Iranians are fleeing to other countries
As the Iran-Israeli conflict continues to escalate, US President Donald Trump urged residents of Tehran to evacuate the city immediately. Meanwhile, several videos and photos allegedly showing Iranians fleeing to bordering countries have surfaced online. In this story, we have debunked three such claims.Iranian refugees fleeing to Afghanistan?A video showing a large group of people running through rugged terrain is going viral as Iranian refugees fleeing to Afghanistan amid the ongoing conflict with Israel.advertisement
We found that several Nepal-based Instagram accounts had shared the same video on June 1. This means it predates the present Iran-Israel conflict, which began with Israel's attack on June 13.As per one such post, the video shows a massive influx of people in Nepal's Rupa-Patan, Dolpa, searching for Yarsagumba, also known as "Himalayan Viagra," a rare medicinal fungus found in Nepal's Himalayan region at elevations of 3,000 to 5,000 metres.We also found several videos similar to the viral video on YouTube in which the same terrain area can be seen. View this post on Instagram A post shared by madeinnepal (@madeinnepal143)Iranians crossing border to enter Pakistan?Another video allegedly showed Iranians rushing through a large gate to enter Pakistan. Sharing this video, an X user wrote, 'Refugees from Iran start to flood into Pakistan through Taftan border crossing.'advertisementResponding to the viral post, several people pointed out that the video was old and showed Pakistani Shia pilgrims visiting Iran. Reverse-searching keyframes from the viral video led to the same clip from August 9, 2024. This shows that the viral clip predates the ongoing conflict.As per the post, the video showed the Pakistan-Iran border welcoming visitors of Al-Hussain. We also found the viral clip on YouTube shared on August 10, 2024. The Taftan border is important during Islamic events such as Muharram and Arbaeen, and Pakistani pilgrims enter Iran through it to participate in the Arbaeen religious rituals and to pay homage to the shrine of Imam Husayn in Iraq's Karbala.Iranians stranded at the Afghan border?A photo of a large group of people stranded was shared as Iranians at the Afghan border.We found the viral picture in a 2021 India Today report. As per the report, the image shows hundreds of Afghans gathered on the Pakistani side of the Chaman border, seeking to cross into Afghanistan. However, the Taliban did not permit crossings until Pakistan met certain demands. We found the same image used by other news publications at that time, which means that this photo has nothing to do with the Iran-Israel conflict.advertisementHowever, there are reports of Iranians leaving Tehran after the recent escalations. Residents have reportedly been fleeing to northern provinces such as Mazandaran, Gilan, and Alborz, leading to severe traffic congestion, fuel shortages, and disruptions in daily life.Notably, Pakistan has closed its border with Iran indefinitely amid the Israel-Iran conflict. Afghanistan also closed its border for cargo trucks after the conflict began. As per reports, some Iranians have sought refuge in Turkey. However, Turkish officials have denied reports of a large-scale influx of refugees.Thus, it is evident that these photos and videos do not show Iranians fleeing to neighbouring countries.Tune InMust Watch
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Indian Express
16 minutes ago
- Indian Express
Daily Briefing: As US enters Iran-Israel conflict, what's next?
Uncertainty persists a day after the US struck three key nuclear facilities in Iran. Experts are yet to determine the exact damage to Iran's nuclear facilities. A question mark hangs over the fate of the Iran-controlled Strait of Hormuz, via which 20% of global oil and gas demand flows. Most crucially, the world awaits Iran's response to the US strikes after it vowed to defend itself. Let's look at what happened and what likely comes next. Recap: The US military deployed a group of B-2 bombers from Missouri towards the Pacific island of Guam. It was seen as a possible pre-positioning for any US decision to strike Iran. It turned out that this was a decoy. The real group of B-2 stealth bombers flew east, undetected for 18 hours, before unleashing the heavy-duty bunker buster bombs on Iran's critical Fordow nuclear sites. Simultaneously, Navy submarines fired 30 Tomahawk cruise missiles at Natanz and Isfahan atomic sites. The damage: While Israel had targeted Natanz, a uranium enrichment site, and Isfahan, a storage facility for near-bomb-grade nuclear fuel, in earlier strikes, it needed US assistance to target Fordow. It is Iran's most critical nuclear enrichment facility, housed deep inside a mountain. As my colleague Amitabh Sinha explains, the US strikes did not pose threats of a nuclear explosion, nor have they led to any major radiation leak. Notably, while satellite imagery showed significant damage to Fordow, the extent of below-ground destruction remains unknown. Speculation was also rife that Iran may have moved its enriched uranium to a secure facility before the US attack. An unnamed Iranian source confirmed this to the news agency Reuters. The politics: US President Donald Trump's decision to enter the war may receive the most severe criticism from his own support base. Trump rode the right-wing populist wave to power, promising to keep the US out of the endless wars in the Middle East. If the conflict with Tehran widens, he may lose crucial support. So far, Trump acolytes have insisted that the US was not at 'war' with Iran, and the actions were not aimed at a regime change (though a post on Trump's Truth Social, calling to 'Make Iran Great Again', argued precisely the opposite). Contributing editor C Raja Mohan takes a comprehensive view of the attack's impact in the region. The tightrope: India walks a diplomatic tightrope as it has ties with both Iran and Israel — and now, the US — to protect. In a phone call with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged for de-escalation, an appeal echoed by world leaders across the globe. The conflict also threatens to upend India's military capabilities if it stretches on. India accounts for 34 per cent of Israel's arms imports, including loitering munitions and air defence systems deployed during Operation Sindoor. Military sources told my colleague Amrita Nayak Dutta that the war may not impact Indian military hardware just yet. However, if Iran were to close the Strait of Hormuz, a motion already approved in Iranian parliament, it may severely hit India's oil and gas imports. 🎧 For more on the US strikes in Iran, tune in to today's '3 Things' podcast episode. Moving on to the rest of the day's headlines. India has sealed the trade deal with the UK; another one with the US is in the offing. But are the trade talks with the European Union lagging? 'What is important is not about being fast and furious, but resolute and substantial, for both constituencies. Europeans may be a bit slower, we are a bit bureaucratic, we are not shining, but at the end of the day, we deliver,' the EU Ambassador to India, Herve Delphin, said. Read everything he said about EU-India ties in the latest Idea Exchange session. ID'ed: The National Investigation Agency has made a breakthrough in its probe into the April 22 Pahalgam attack, identifying the three attackers — all from Pakistan. Crucially, the identities differ from the three sketches released by the Jammu and Kashmir police right after the incident. Dig in: Mining and related activities are prohibited in a one-kilometre zone outside the Critical Tiger Habitat (CTH) in the Sariska Tiger Reserve. Last year, over 50 marble and dolomite mines were shut down on the Supreme Court's order due to their proximity to the CTH. Now, a plan to retreat the CTH boundaries may hand a lifeline to these mines. Data crunch: Macroeconomic figures point to steady growth for India, but rarely account for individual well-being. Researchers Ashok Gulati and Ritika Juneja's breakdown of the numbers shows that India's poverty levels have reached a historic low. There may be a need to reexamine government policies, particularly around the food and fertiliser subsidies. 'Spiritual Disneyland': In 2021, bulldozers arrived at Auroville to make way for the Centre's master plan to redevelop the experimental township. The Centre insists its plans are based on the Galaxy Plan of the township's founder, Mirra Alfassa or 'Mother'. However, long-time residents have accused the authorities of indulging in 'methodical erosion' of the township's founding ideals, alleging control, surveillance, and censorship. A wave of visa renewal denials has also left many of the Aurovillians displaced. Arun Janardhan spoke to the residents to make sense of the allegations. In England's first innings against India in the ongoing Test series, Harry Brook stopped just one short of scoring a century. National sports editor Sandeep Dwivedi travelled to rural Yorkshire, where a village of 7,000 raised Brook. A boy who practically grew up at a clubhouse in the village's centre is now England's big batting hope and their heir-apparent to Test skipper Ben Stokes. Read Dwivedi's dispatch. That's all for today, folks! Until tomorrow, Sonal Gupta Sonal Gupta is a senior sub-editor on the news desk. She writes feature stories and explainers on a wide range of topics from art and culture to international affairs. She also curates the Morning Expresso, a daily briefing of top stories of the day, which won gold in the 'best newsletter' category at the WAN-IFRA South Asian Digital Media Awards 2023. She also edits our newly-launched pop culture section, Fresh Take. ... Read More
Time of India
16 minutes ago
- Time of India
'Went in and out without anyone knowing': How US' B-2 jets flew undetected into Iranian skies and rained hellfire; explained
B-2 spirit bombers Under a cloak of secrecy and tonnes of planning, American stealth bombers launched a surprise attack with surgical precision, unleashing a powerful blow on Iran's underground nuclear sites. Operation Midnight Hammer saw seven B-2 Spirit bombers fly nearly 37 hours round-trip from Missouri to Iran, dropping 30,000-pound bunker-buster bombs on three key underground nuclear sites last week. The attack was designed to deal a critical blow to Iran's uranium enrichment programme, in line with US President Donald Trump 's stance that Iran cannot be allowed to possess nuclear weapons. The bombers were supported by dozens of fighter jets, aerial tankers and a submarine, and struck targets at Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan with 75 precision-guided weapons. 'We devastated the Iranian nuclear program," said US secretary of defence Pete Hegseth , calling it an "incredible and overwhelming success." Flying in silence: How the B-2s reached Iran unnoticed The mission was made possible by a complex deception plan. While seven B-2 bombers flew east from Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri to strike Iran, another set of bombers was sent west as decoys, drawing attention from media, government officials and military spotters. Backed by stealth fighters and support aircraft, the real bombers flew across the Atlantic and Mediterranean in near radio silence, refuelling multiple times in mid-air before reaching their targets. US Air Force General Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, explained that the operation was so secretive that 'only an extremely small number of planners and key leaders' knew about it in advance. "Our B-2s went in and out and back without the world knowing at all," said Hegseth. As the bombers approached Iran, a US submarine launched more than two dozen Tomahawk cruise missiles toward the Isfahan site, an hour ahead of the B-2s. Fighter jets checked for any threats along the route, but according to Caine, "Iran's fighters did not fly, and it appears that Iran's surface-to-air missile systems did not see us." Massive bunker busters and a submarine barrage At 6:40 pm ET on Saturday (2:10 am in Iran), the lead B-2 bomber dropped two GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrators (MOPs) on the Fordow site. The rest followed over a 25-minute window, releasing 14 bunker busters on Fordow and Natanz, while Tomahawk missiles targeted Isfahan. All three sites are central to Iran's nuclear fuel processing. Trump said the Fordow facility, Iran's most heavily protected nuclear site, is now 'gone'. In his address from the White House, Trump called the strike 'a spectacular military success.' He added, 'If peace does not come quickly, we will go after those other targets with precision, speed and skill." Inside the B-2: Stealth, speed and power Each B-2 bomber costs about $2.1 billion and has a wingspan of 172 feet. It was designed in the late 1980s, and only 21 were built. The B-2 is one of the world's most advanced military aircraft, capable of flying over 6,000 nautical miles without refuelling. It can carry over 40,000 pounds of bombs inside its stealth-coated body, including MOPs and other precision-guided weapons. Its two-man crew benefits from high levels of automation and even a few in-flight comforts such as a toilet, refrigerator, microwave and space for one pilot to lie down while the other flies. The 30,000-pound MOPs dropped on Fordow are the largest conventional bombs in the US arsenal, able to penetrate over 200 feet of reinforced concrete. This was their first-ever use in combat. Numbers behind the mission According to Pentagon figures, more than 125 aircraft participated in the mission, including stealth bombers, support planes, fighters and surveillance craft. A total of 75 precision weapons were used, including 14 bunker busters and over two dozen cruise missiles. Initial assessments suggest that the damage to Iran's nuclear programme is severe. "Initial battle damage assessments indicate that all three sites sustained extremely severe damage and destruction," said Caine. Iran denied the extent of the damage and vowed to retaliate. Operation Midnight Hammer has gone down as the largest B-2 operational strike in US history and the longest such mission since 2001.
Time of India
16 minutes ago
- Time of India
US-Iran tensions: Tehran vows 'proportionate response'; key ways it can retaliate
Iran has promised a 'proportionate response' to what it calls the United States' 'criminal aggression' after President Donald Trump confirmed that American forces had 'obliterated' three of Iran's nuclear facilities. While Trump hailed the strike as a military success, warning there were 'many targets left,' Iran has vowed that its response will come; the only question is when and how. Iran's foreign ministry said the country would 'defend its territory, sovereignty, security and people by all force and means.' The Iranian military is now reportedly in charge of planning a retaliatory strike, according to Iran's UN envoy Amir Saeid Iravani, who told the Security Council that Washington had 'decided to destroy diplomacy.' 'We will take all measures necessary,' Iravani said, adding that Iran's response would be shaped by 'timing, nature and scale' determined solely by its military. Limited strikes or wider confrontation? Iran's dilemma lies in balancing a credible retaliation without triggering a full-scale regional war. It has experience with calibrated responses: following the 2020 US killing of General Qassem Soleimani, Tehran launched missiles at US bases in Iraq after warning them in advance. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Giao dịch CFD với công nghệ và tốc độ tốt hơn IC Markets Đăng ký Undo No lives were lost, but the message was clear. This time, however, experts suggest Iran may avoid advance notice. According to the BBC, Tehran retains roughly half of its original 3,000 missiles and has already drawn up a list of some 20 US bases in the region, including key sites like At-Tanf, Ain al-Asad, and Erbil in Iraq and Syria. Proxies could also be activated to carry out these attacks, mirroring past strategies. Sanam Vakil of Chatham House told The New York Times that Iran could strike 'largely evacuated' US bases or re-activate regional partners like the Houthis in Yemen. Such a cautious, asymmetric campaign would allow Iran to maintain its image without escalating into direct confrontation. The Strait of Hormuz and cyber warfare Another option is economic warfare. Tehran could attempt to choke the Strait of Hormuz — the strategic waterway through which nearly a third of global oil flows. The BBC reported that Iran might deploy sea mines or fast-attack boats to block shipping lanes, potentially causing a spike in global oil prices. Cyberattacks also remain a key tool in Iran's arsenal. Alongside China, Russia and North Korea, Iran has cultivated advanced cyber capabilities. Attacks on US infrastructure or commercial entities could inflict damage without triggering immediate military retaliation. 'Iran knew this was coming and will have prepared a chain of responses,' said Ellie Geranmayeh of the European Council on Foreign Relations, warning that attacks 'will be swift and multilayered.' Retaliation could be delayed — or abandoned There are voices within Iran's leadership arguing for restraint. A delayed response striking back when US forces are no longer on high alert could allow Tehran to save face without risking immediate retribution. Symbolic attacks on diplomatic missions or targeted assassinations of US-linked figures abroad are also being considered. However, such a strategy carries its own risks. Doing nothing may spare Iran further losses but risks weakening its domestic credibility. As conservative Tehran analyst Reza Salehi noted: 'If we do not react, the US will not leave us alone.' Some experts argue that the regime may ultimately choose to recalibrate rather than retaliate. This includes restarting diplomacy, potentially via neutral mediators in Muscat or Rome. Yet such a path would demand significant concessions, especially around its nuclear enrichment programme something the regime has historically resisted. The nuclear question looms large According to NYT reporting, Iran's long-term takeaway from the strikes may be the need for a nuclear deterrent. Vali Nasr, an Iran scholar at Johns Hopkins University, said the strikes may push Iran to abandon cooperation with the IAEA and move towards nuclear armament. 'This is the great irony,' Geranmayeh told NYT. 'Although Trump has sought to eliminate the nuclear threat from Iran, he has now made it far more likely that Iran becomes a nuclear state.' Ayatollah Khamenei could authorise withdrawal from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and expel international inspectors, effectively ending global oversight of Iran's programme. While the International Atomic Energy Agency reported no radiation leakage after the US strikes — implying enriched uranium was likely moved, concerns remain that Iran's stockpile is now hidden and unmonitored. 'Hardliners in the Iranian regime may ultimately win the day' Experts believe Iran now faces two critical choices. Jonathan Panikoff of the Atlantic Council explained: 'Iran can choose to strike US bases in a limited fashion… or it could go all in and trigger a regional war.' Refraining from retaliation may limit further military damage but risks weakening the regime's image. 'If we do not react, the US will not leave us alone,' said conservative Tehran analyst Reza Salehi. A calculated response—such as targeting symbolic US sites—could appease hardliners without escalating to full-scale war. However, given Trump's threats and the severity of the strikes, restraint seems unlikely. 'Hardliners in the Iranian regime may ultimately win the day,' Panikoff noted, adding that asymmetric attacks or overseas terror operations remain a possibility. Iran's past actions, like the Khobar Towers bombing and rocket attacks on US forces in Iraq, show both its capability and intent to retaliate. Its allies, including Yemen's Houthis, have already threatened US naval forces. Regional fallout and US response With over 40,000 American troops stationed across the region, in Bahrain, Qatar, Iraq and elsewhere, Washington is reinforcing its positions. Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has confirmed the deployment of additional assets, and non-essential diplomatic staff have been evacuated. Trump, while portraying the US operation as restrained, has made it clear that more force will follow if Iran escalates. 'There will either be peace or there will be tragedy for Iran,' he warned. Still, many in Tehran believe the real tragedy is already unfolding. Iran's UN envoy accused Israel of manipulating US policy, saying Netanyahu had succeeded in dragging the United States into 'yet another costly and baseless war.'
